Sand Absorbs the Blood and Tears
by FoxAnime
Summary: GaaraNaru guys. I'm kinda sick of SasuNaru. Romance and danger spin themselves out in the sand country, and Naruto is at the center of it all. Battles over friendship, love, and power happen almost every day. The sand absorbs it all.
1. Prologue

1A kunai flew through the air and landed with a dull thud in the sunlit grass. Blonde hair flashed as the thrower in the tree landed next to it and withdrew it from the ground, his blue eyes gleaming as he looked up at the sky, slipping the kunai back into its proper place.

Naruto had received a note to meet at this specific place around noon. Well, he was here, and he was bored. He sat back against the tree, closing his brilliant eyes to the sun, and sighed.

His life had been hard lately. On the way home from one of his typical Ichiraku stops after training, Naruto could've sworn he'd been followed. He had no proof, but he always saw that shadow out of the corner of his eye and when he turned to see it better, it was never there.

There was that, and the fact that a few days later he had come home early from training frustrated, when he heard a hard **thunk!** as he slammed the door. He opened it again and saw a kunai, but of unusual make, and blood was dripping down from it. He looked around, but he didn't see anybody injured or any blood besides what was on the door. He took the kunai to Tsunade, and as soon as she saw it, her face clouded in a fearful expression he'd never seen before.

After he'd told her what happened, she'd disappeared into her office for a few minutes before reappearing. She told him that it was a weapon from a far village that even she hadn't heard of before and that it was dipped in a poison so potent, it made wood bleed, which explained the blood's strange appearance on the door.

_Sasuke saved me that day, however indirectly,_ he thought, smiling slightly. They'd fought again that day over some stupid thing, and when Naruto slammed the door, the door had swung into the path of the kunai, preventing it from killing him. Naruto thought about Sakura, and he smiled a bit wider. She'd been beautiful that day, even more so than usual. _But that was probably for Sasuke to notice, not me_. His thoughts grew darker and he lost his smile.

_Why am I here? Where is this person that's supposed to meet me?_ His eyebrows contracted over his closed eyes. _Is it Sasuke? Is this his idea of a joke?_ But then, other things entered his head. _What about that rock that somebody threw through my window? What about all those other things? And then this note. Why'd they want to meet me outside the village?_

His eyes flew open even as he felt the kunai being pressed to his throat.

_What if this is a trap?!_


	2. Chapter 1

1"Don't move."

The voice was muffled, and as Naruto looked out of the corner of his eye, he saw a masked figure next to him. A jounin. He looked up. Of the hidden leaf village. He closed his eyes again. _Is this how it's going to end?_ He'd accepted that people wanted him dead. He'd accepted death almost everyday he'd lived, ever since he found out the reason why people hated him so much. But he'd imagined going out in a battle against impossible odds, not with his throat slit off the road outside Konoha.

As he opened his eyes again, he noticed that there were more people here than just the one next to him. Some stood full out in the sunlight in the little clearing he had blindly walked into. He could pick out shadows of even more people in the dappled shadows of the woods.

_I totally fell for it. They were probably here hours before me and when I showed up, just waited for me to let my guard down before they struck._ He grimaced and took a deep breath. "Just hurry up and do it," he said through gritted teeth. The jounin looked mildly surprised before he threw back his head in laughter. All the other ninja joined in, filling the space with mocking laughter that made Naruto wish that he had the power to crush them all in one blow. He felt Kyuubi stir within him, and he fought to calm himself down. If he wasn't careful, he'd lose control, and Kyuubi would do just what he was thinking about.

The ninja at his throat stopped laughing abruptly, noticing that Naruto's eyes were taking on a red tint and that his nails were slowly lengthening. He pressed the kunai closer to Naruto's jugular, going so far as to make a fine line of crimson appear on the alabaster skin. "None of that now," he said, no trace of laughter in his voice now, "we can't have you killing half the village before we get rid of you."

He watched, tense, until he saw the nails retract to a normal length and the blood-red glimmer in Naruto's eyes fade. He relaxed, withdrawing his kunai and stepping back from the tree that Naruto sat against. This drew a startled and confused reaction from the blonde which caused him to chuckle slightly.

"Why're you doing this?" Naruto asked, standing up slowly, trying to not startle any of the other ninja. "Why aren't you going to just kill me?" This drew a rumble of laughter from the others, which was quickly silenced as the ninja that Naruto assumed was the leader, the one who had held the kunai to his throat, glared at them until it ceased. Satisfied that he wasn't going to be interrupted anymore, he turned back to Naruto with a slight smile on his face.

"Why, we don't want to kill you. At least, not all of us." Naruto glanced around the clearing once more, checking once more that he was surrounded and had no chance to escape, before answering. "Well then, what do you want?"

The lead ninja's smile widened. "Why, we just want you to leave the village forever."

Naruto was in shock. He'd never considered this and had never wanted to. To leave the village forever? It was too much to take in, especially when he was surrounded by people that wanted him dead. He fell back against the tree, staring at the ground unseeing, listening to the ninja as he continued to speak.

"Trying to kill you would just be a waste of time and good men. You leaving is a much easier solution for you and for us. We don't care where you go, as long as you never come back to Konoha." Naruto's head jerked up as he looked at the ninja. He'd never seen him before. _Is he even from the village?_, he thought, looking him up and down. The ninja had laughter in his eyes as he saw Naruto appraising him.

"Yes, I'm from the village. Here, it's a missive from Tsunade. We're supposed to deliver copies of this to the leaders of the other villages, but I think it's okay if you see it first." Naruto caught the scroll that was thrown at him. He held it in his hands a while before he looked back at the ninja. He just smiled and gestured towards the scroll. "How do I know you won't get in trouble for this?" he asked, stalling for time. "We have ways of sealing the scroll again, don't worry." Having no other excuses, he broke the seal and unrolled the message.

He read, and read, and read again. His face clouded and his eyes dulled as he read once more the message written in Tsunade's flowing script:

_To the honorable leaders of the villages round about,_

_This missive is to inform you that we will be exterminating a demon soon, and to not be worried about anything you may see or hear around the village in the near future. If we fail in our efforts to capture him, I have enclosed a profile of this monster. He is a cunning thing, and I would be extremely sorrowful if he somehow escaped us and infiltrated one of your villages. Here is a picture and a profile on this fiend should he evade our best efforts._

_(Here was a picture and description of Naruto's life, habits, and other miscellaneous things about him that would betray him in a second if people were looking for him.)_

_Heaven forbid if we breaks loose of our borders. I wish health to you all._

_Honor and Wisdom to you in age,_

_Tsunade, Honorable Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village_

Naruto's lifted his emotionless face to look at the ninja, who stood there, still smiling at him, before throwing the scroll at him and looking away, his normally bright eyes dull. "You should be happy," the ninja soothed, "I've just saved your miserable skin." Naruto turned back to the ninja at these words, staring with lifeless eyes. "Without me showing you this, you'd be dead in a matter of hours. Yes," he said, noticing Naruto's eyes regain a temporary flicker of life, "the plan was to be executed tonight. Fortunately, I was nice enough to share this with you before you could be killed. Aren't you happy?"

Naruto looked away again. The ninja peered at him curiously, but Naruto's face betrayed nothing. Naruto's lips moved, and the ninja had to lean closer to hear what he was saying. "Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi, Iruka? Do all of them know?" The ninja nodded, adding, "They hate you as much as everybody else. Their missions were to gain your trust, which is why you were thrown together as a team and Kakashi made your teacher, same with Iruka. They were supposed to lull you into a sense of security and lure you to a designated place somewhere inside the village where you were to be killed." Naruto nodded as he absorbed all this without a flicker of emotion. "So, Sasuke being my best friend, and Iruka caring about me? That was all a lie? All a part of this...plan?" The answering nod confirmed Naruto's worst fears.

Naruto stood defiantly and faced the ninja. "So, what do I do?" The ninja smiled that irritating smile again, and spread his arms. "Just go somewhere else. Leave the village forever like I told you. Don't come back, because they'll be on their guard. You're going to have to change your appearance to avoid detection. Orange is too conspicuous. You have to find different clothes as soon as possible. And do something with your hair. This picture will definitely betray you if you don't do something about it."

Naruto was silent, making mental notes of all the suggestions that the ninja was making. He didn't know where he could go, but he was going to change himself as soon as possible so he wouldn't get caught. He realized that all the jounin had gone except the leader. He stared blankly at the lone ninja. The ninja stared back, readying for his departure, but what Naruto said next stopped him. "What is your name?"

The ninja looked surprised for a second, then smirked. "It's Metu Uramicoro, if you honestly must know." Naruto chuckled, but it was brittle, no laughter in it. "Uramicoro. I've never heard of you before, I guess it doesn't matter. It's not like I'm going to meet you ever again, at least, on the streets of Konoha," he muttered bitterly, his face full of suffering. "Yes, well, we might well cross again soon," Uramicoro said before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Naruto walked to the center of the clearing where Uramicoro had been standing only a few moments before. He stared at the spot for a while, trying to decide what to do. Konoha was now barred to him forever. He had to hide. He felt the leaf symbol on his forehead protector. Untying the headband, he held it in his hand, gazing at it for a minute, before throwing it to ground and leaping off into the trees, just going anywhere but the direction where the village lay.

Eyes had watched Naruto the entire time he had been alone in the clearing after Uramicoro left. They watched as he moved to the center of the clearing, as he flung away his forehead protector, and fled. Uramicoro and another ninja reappeared in the clearing after Naruto had long left the area. The new ninja walked over to the headband and picked it up, tossing it from hand to hand as he came back to where Uramicoro stood. "Nice going, _Metu Uramicoro_," he said slyly, putting emphasis on the name.

Uramicoro grinned. "I couldn't very well tell him my real name," he said, as he took the missive that he had shown Naruto and ripped it to shreds. "How did you come up with it so fast? You weren't planning on him asking for your name were you?" Uramicoro arched his eyebrows, but answered the ninja. "I just said my name backwards, removing one or two letters. Metu was just inspiration." The ninja nodded. "Orochimaru spelled backwards does make it Uramicoro minus the h doesn't it?"

Orochimaru smiled. "Why yes, yes it does."


	3. Chapter 2

1Black dye streaked the dirty white sink in the room that Naruto had rented at the cheap inn. He'd run blindly from the clearing, not caring where he was going as long as it was away from Konoha, so he had quite a few scratches and bruises from branches that had whipped him as he sped past, making no effort to dodge them. He felt he deserved this pain. How could he have been so stupid? How could he even dare think that they would accept him?

_I'm such an idiot,_ he thought, his hands clutching either side of the sink, his head poised over it. Tears steadily dripped off his face and splashed down into the sink, mingling with the midnight dye as it slowly drained away. Naruto wiped away a few tears that refused to fall before looking in the mirror at his new appearance.

Naruto's hair was now the color of ebony, so dark that it had a blue sheen in the dim light. He'd bought contacts at the drugstore down the road, and the eyes that gazed back at him were an unfamiliar iridescent green. He looked at either side of his face close up. The whisker marks that were a sign of the demon inside of him he couldn't get rid of. He considered cutting off those parts of his skin, but he instantly dismissed the idea. He'd pass out from the pain before he could even finish one side and he would just bleed out.

_I'll just wear a mask like Kakashi-sensei!,_ he thought excitedly, but almost as soon as he thought about this, a hole seemed to open up in his chest and he collapsed onto the ground, gasping for breath. All the hurt, misery, confusion, and sorrow seemed to have built up in that one spot, waiting for the right trigger, and the thought of his old teacher had caused it to explode from him. He clutched his sides, sobbing. Eventually, as the memory of Kakashi's face faded, the pain ceased, and he was able to stand, wobbling slightly.

"I've gotta stop thinking about them," he whimpered, curling into a tight ball on the broke-down bed, "else I don't think I'll survive this." Silently, tears poured down his face. Mentally, he ticked off the stuff he needed to get before he could start on the run again. _New clothes that would go with my hair, a face mask, food, and a map so I can find places to hide._ As he cried himself to sleep, he realized one crucial thing before he slipped into unconsciousness. He was all alone.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Did you find him yet?" was all that a panicked Sakura could get out as she gasped for breath. She, Sasuke, Kakashi, and a bunch of other ninja, genin and jounin alike, had been scouring the woods for a little over 24 straight hours, agreeing to meet up at this spot at midnight of the next night.

The whole thing had started when Naruto hadn't showed up for his usual dinner bowl of ramen at Ichiruka. The people who regularly went there were slightly surprised to find the blonde not slurping up ramen at the counter, but dismissed it. They all thought that Naruto was sick or something. All except for one rare patron of the little café, a raven-haired, obsidian-eyed teenager who thought it especially strange. Never had Sasuke known Naruto to skip out on his favorite dish, no matter how tired he was, especially when Naruto had made an appointment to meet him here to discuss what had happened at this morning's training session. He made a quick stop at Naruto's apartment to check up on him, but there was no answer when he banged on the door.

_Maybe he just forgot like the dobe he is,_ he thought as he rolled his eyes. He knew that it was really hard to wake Naruto up when he got to sleep, so he just headed back to his compound, all set on asking him why he'd stiffed him the night before. But Naruto didn't show up for next morning's training. Sasuke, along with a slightly irritated Sakura, finished up there training and at lunch time, went to Naruto's apartment to confront him. "He's slept in an missed training too many times," Sakura was nagging as they were ringing the doorbell, "Honestly, couldn't he grow up a little and be responsible? He's worse than Kakashi-sensei sometimes, I swear."

When once more, no answer came from inside, Sakura hushed and both of them looked for a way in. Sasuke found a window cracked open a little and shoved it open and dropped to the floor inside, Sakura following close behind. It was dark in the apartment, the only source light being the window that they'd just opened. All the curtains were drawn, and as Sasuke headed towards the bedroom, Sakura started drawing curtains aside and throwing open windows to let the sunlight and fresh air permeate the stuffy place.

"Sakura! Come here!" Sasuke's urgent voice called from the bedroom. Knowing something must be wrong if Sasuke was using that kind of voice, Sakura ran to the other end of the apartment, bursting through the door of the bedroom. "What?! What is it?!" she asked, looking around, a kunai at the ready. Sasuke was rifling through some papers on a nearby desk, which shocked Sakura to no end. "What are you doing? Stop going through his stuff! What're you looking for anyway?"

"Clues," he said simply, now looking through the desk drawers, "Naruto's bed hasn't been slept in, look." Sakura glanced around, and Sasuke was right, the bed covers were smooth, the pillow undented. Sakura left Sasuke looking around in the bedroom and headed for the kitchen. Sure enough, no dirty dishes were in sight, and as she walked from room to room, it looked as if nothing had been used recently. She almost ran into Sasuke coming out of the bathroom.

"Where could he have gone? Without telling us? I mean, we're his best friends..." Sakura's brows furrowed in confusion. Sasuke shrugged and made for the door, "I don't know, but it can't be good. Let's go Kakashi-sensei." After a while of searching, they found him in a hammock in a copse of trees on top of the hokage monument with Make-Out Paradise draped across his face. By now it was early evening and they were losing time. With their combined strength, they pushed the hammock over, and landing on his feet and catching Make-Out Paradise before it could fall on the ground and get dirty. He put it away, rubbing his eyes as he said, "I knew you were coming for a while now, but you didn't need to do that."

Sakura rolled her eyes and tapped her foot as Sasuke looked stonily on. Kakashi looked from one to the other and figured something was up, because he said to Sasuke, "Am I missing something here, or are you just going emo again and blaming me instead of the world for all your troubles?" Sasuke's eyes narrowed to nothing more than slits before he answered. "We think that Naruto's missing."

"Oh?" Kakashi said, raising his eyebrow and widening his one visible eye. "His bed hasn't been slept in, nothing in his apartment has been used recently, and I found this on his desk." He handed Kakashi a slip of paper, looking at the message scrawled across it. "I think he got it yesterday morning, because he seemed distracted all during training yesterday." Kakashi nodded, tucking the note into one of the many pockets on his jounin vest. "I think this is a matter for the hokage herself to decide."

So they visited Tsunade in her office, explaining the situation and showing her the note. She wanted to see Naruto's place for herself, so they showed her where it was, and as she went through it, she agreed with everything that Sasuke and Sakura claimed to have found there. She'd arranged a search party to start at the clearing that had been mentioned in the cryptic note. When they'd arrived there, multiple footprints and a few shreds of paper near the tree line were all that they found. That was, until Lee called from near the center of the clearing. Clearly in the moist earth, was the outline of a Hidden Leaf forehead protector. The depth of the print and the absence of footprints directly around the impression indicated that it had been thrown with great force into the ground, instead of it being stamped in.

"Something really bad must've happened to Naruto for him to have fling it away that hard," Tenten commented, and the others nodded. They continued their search for the next 24 hours, picking up Naruto's trail in one direction before it faded into a dead end, picking it up a few yards in a totally opposite direction and continuing along before losing it completely. As they followed the sketchy trail, they noticed that no matter how many times they lost it, when they picked it up again, it was always heading away from Konoha. Eventually the trail went cold, the sign grew further and farther between, and eventually, no trace of Naruto's flight could be found.

When they met back at the clearing that night, people were shaking their heads and wondering where Naruto was now. They'd found scraps of his clothes ripped off in his escape, even a few traces of blood, but nothing else. Iruka came forward and stood on a boulder near the center of the clearing, waiting until the other ninja's hushed conversations ceased and all eyes were on him.

"Naruto's trail is erratic at best," he concluded, stating the obvious before going into the guesswork, "something must've happened here when he met with whoever, and what they discussed had to be about our village, because all the evidence points to an all out rejection of the Konoha and its inhabitants. He threw his headband away, he was running in any direction opposite that of Konoha, and he didn't dare come back to say goodbye to his friends." He nodded at figure in the crowd as he stepped down from the rock and all attention was riveted on Tsunade, who had stepped up onto the boulder in Iruka's place.

"I'm sorry that I could not get to join you in this search for one of our own. If any in the surrounding villages had heard that our home lay unprotected and unsupervised, if only for a few hours, we would've been swarmed with enemies. Unfortunately, I must call an end to the search..." At this, there were a few surprised looks and some angry muttering from the genin, all of whom liked Naruto immensely.

"...but," Tsunade continued as if she hadn't heard anything, "I will say that we will try to piece together those scroll fragments we found and I will send out missives to all the kages in the surrounding lands, asking them to look out for Naruto. Now, we must all return to Konoha. We can't let anything, even something as important as this, distract us from our daily lives. We have missions that need completing, projects to make our village more secure to attend to."

As Tsunade walked through them, Sasuke stepped out in front of her, barring her way. She stopped, looking into his black eyes, which now looked like dull, hot coals, burning with anger. "So, you're just gonna call it all off? If we don't do anything now, we don't even have the slimmest chance of finding him and bringing him back."

He had a soft spot for the clueless blond. When Sasuke had left the village, people had searched for him, but none as much as Naruto had pursued him, and that was almost to the point of death, and, after recovering, Naruto still hadn't rested until Sasuke had come back. Sasuke wanted to give as much of a fighting chance to Naruto as Naruto had given to him, but Tsunade's face only softened in the confrontation with Sasuke's righteous anger, revealing to him the worry and weariness in her own eyes.

"I have thought of everything I can to find him," she sighed, looking at him with sad eyes, "If you can think of anything, tell me. What would you have me do?"

Sasuke was ashamed. He realized he couldn't think of anything that Tsunade hadn't already tried and tried again. The fire went out of Sasuke's obsidian eyes as he looked away, and without saying a word, he stepped back, leaving Tsunade's way clear. Taking a deep breath, Tsunade started forward once more, and with a silent leap, the ninjas followed her out of the clearing, its serenity somehow tainted by the silent grief at the thought of their lost friend.


	4. Chapter 3

1The sweat that trickled under his mask was driving Naruto crazy, but he didn't dare pull it down now to wipe it away. He was traveling in the most unnoticeable way possible, by foot. Pulling the mask down here was out of the question. The road was thick with travelers, and doubtless the different kages had distributed some kind of wanted poster all over their lands, so people would recognize him. If he went off into the forest on either side of the dirt track he was walking on and tried to journey like he regularly would, he'd probably end up being caught by enemy ninja that would be more happy to turn him over to his destruction back...

_No, don't think about that place or them,_ he thought, shaking his head vigorously before focusing his gaze directly in front of him, _think about something else._ To distract himself, he looked down at the clothes he'd picked out earlier that day. He'd gone to a nearby market, and looking around, chose the store he would've been least likely to go into back...there. The black bondage pants had been on sale, and since they were so out of character for him, he figured nobody would recognize him at first glance when he wore them. He'd also kinda liked them, but he was too proud to admit it, even to himself.

As he'd gone to the different racks, he'd seen many different shirts, but none would've gone with the pants draped over his arm. Then, a girl had popped out of nowhere, saying, "Dude, those pants are awesome. Do you want me to help you find something to go with it?" She'd read his mind, and looking at what she was wearing, he thought that she would know what to look for, so with a slight nod, they'd gone to it. She'd found a couple shirts for him to try on along with the pants, and as he came out of the dressing rooms with each one on, she'd comment, "Oh, that's fuckin' awesome!" or "Oh my god, that kills the outfit!"

Finally, they'd narrowed it down to a couple shirts, and choosing two or three, he'd gone on to accessories, the girl trailing behind him. Between them, they picked out a couple wristbands, bracelets, a spiked dog collar, and when asking about a mask, she'd led him to another section of the store. He gazed at each one with a critical mind, rejecting some on sight and others he had to try out. But one caught his eye. It was hanging near the top, the last of its kind, and slightly dusty. He'd pulled it down, and while inspecting it, the girl had noticed he was holding, said, "Oh, that thing? I guess it could work."

He fingered the blood red silk, feeling a strange attachment to it already, and he muttered to the girl out of the side of his mouth, "I'll take it." They found him a pair of boots a section down, and thinking he was done, Naruto had started to make his way towards the front of the store when he felt a finger tap his shoulder. It was the girl, and she gestured toward a sign hanging over the nearby register: **With Every Five Purchases, You Get A Free Piercing!**

"Will you be taking us up on that offer," she said, raising her eyebrow. Naruto felt the edge of his ear, his gaze never flickering from the sign, and with a devilish grin, he turned to her and said with as much enthusiasm as he could muster, "Where do you recommend?"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

He felt the multiple piercings in each ear and chewed the one in his tongue. She'd offered to pierce his nipples too, but he'd politely declined the offer to get anything else pierced, no matter how many things he'd bought. He almost felt like a new person, walking down that dusty highway. _Except for the fact that I'm on the run and I can't reveal my face to anyone because they might recognize me, I'm great,_ he thought sarcastically. He'd come to a fork, and not caring where he went, randomly chose a direction to walk without even bothering to glance at the signposts that told what lay ahead.

By that evening, he was deep in sand country, dunes rolling endlessly as far as the eye could see on either side of the little more than a dirt trail that the highway had peetered out to. The sun was halfway behind the horizon before Naruto even considered stopping. He found a spot a little ways off the trail made of hard-packed earth. When he found a firepit and a stack of dry wood next to it, he knew it must be a place where people had camped before. Using as little wood as possible, he made a fire and dropped the knapsack he'd been carrying with him. He pulled out half a loaf of bread and a hunk of cheese for dinner, and with the fire crackling merrily away, he ate and curled up in a blanket he had along with all his provisions.

What Naruto didn't know about the site was that it was a place that highway robbers had set up specifically to catch people, a trap. The wood was a special kind that gave off a white smoke, no matter how dry or wet it was, so it would alert the bandits to anybody present in their snare. Naruto had unwittingly looked over the fact that the whole place had looked suspicious in his haste to set up camp, so the robber's lookout had spotted the signal and alerted the leader, who was a mean sand-rat type with many scars, mental and physical, who was feared throughout the group of mercenaries and who had never been challenged for leadership.

As they silently crept over the dunes towards the telltale glow of the fire, they speculated who could have been stupid enough to light the fire. They'd become notorious in that part of the land for their traps and the massacre that would follow when somebody lit the fires, the slaughter that made hardened men turn away. They constantly moved their camp in a desperate attempt to avoid the kazekage's trackers. So far, they had dodged them successfully, but they knew it was only a matter of time before the kazekage became sick of them and sent sand to crush the life out of them. But for now, they were safe.

They gazed down at the snare they had laid and saw a solitary figure lying there, decked out all in black except for a red silk mask he wore across his face. They looked at each other, yellow teeth flashing in the firelight. It was a foreigner, and he was alone. Nobody would miss him, not out here where the dunes would cover the evidence.

They struck swiftly and without mercy. In a second, they were on Naruto, punching, kicking, slashing with knives, beating and bruising him until they thought him dead. His pockets were rifled through, his money, blanket, food, and knapsack that contained the rest of his clothes all taken as the thieves slipped back into the night, leaving the fire to burn out.

As Naruto lay there, bleeding, the sand around him absorbing the blood, turning it a dusky red color. And as the sand soaked up Naruto's blood, hundreds of miles away in the capital of the sand country, Gaara, the kazekage, looked down at his hand, and watched the blood of his friend drip of the ends of his fingers.


	5. Chapter 4

1Gaara watched the steady drip of blood awhile, puzzled as to where it came from. This had never happened before, and the feeling behind it was making him uneasy. _No good can come from this,_ he thought, his brows furrowed as he stared harder at the mysterious blood flowing from some unseen force off of his arm, _I'm not injured. This blood isn't mine._

He saw a few sand flecks mixed in with the blood, and summoning them out, he closed his eyes and spoke to them through his thoughts, _Where do you come from, little ones? You are far from your home. Where do your grains fall?_ He looked over at the map that hung to one side of his desk, an immense chart of the sand country. The sand particles drifted lazily over towards it, then zoomed with sudden speed into the map, marking a spot to the far west, a good distance in from the border.

"GAARA!"

The cry for him had come out of nowhere, and the torment in it startled him. The force of the call was like it was ripped from the chest of a dying animal.

Gaara quickly grabbed a cloak as he passed by the door to his office. He usually wore a coating of sand on to insulate him whenever he went out at night, but he had a bad feeling he would need anything on hand to do something, although he didn't know what. The blood was enough of an omen.

As he stepped outside onto the sand, he breathed a sigh of ecstacy as the sand rose up around him, cocooning him in inches of grit. He directed the sand to take him to the spot the little grains had shown him, and as he felt the cocoon sink below the earth and speed him towards his destination, he urged it on, the growing feeling of foreboding nearly driving him to desperation.

He began to slow, and Gaara knew he was almost there. With a shuddering breath, he knew he had arrived at the designated place. The cocoon rose out of the earth, and as it fell away and his eyes were uncovered, he gaze fell on a form that looked beaten beyond repair.

He knelt down, surveying the still body. He could tell that there were many broken bones, maybe some internal bleeding. Blood had pooled around the victim, and he realized that the sand had been sending him a message when it had appeared on his arm. What he couldn't figure out is why the sand had done this for this teenager when it hadn't done for countless others who had died in this area, victims of the marauding bandits that roamed these parts.

As Gaara's gaze fell on the boy's face, he realized he was wearing a mask across the bottom half of his face. Gaara carefully peeled away the red silk, made even more red by the blood that had soaked it from a wound on the adolescent's forehead, and as he took in the battered features, he recognized the whisker marks on his cheeks.

"Naruto!" he gasped, his hand drawing back in surprise. What shocked him even more was the fact that if he watched carefully, he could see the once blonde's chest rise and fall, if only shallowly. He looked back at Naruto's face, wondering at the dark transformation it had undergone. The blonde hair was no more, the orange jumpsuit had been replaced by black cloth, and piercings dotted his ears, and if Gaara looked closely, he could swear he saw one in his tongue as well.

Then Gaara's rage took over. A feral snarl escaped his throat. Who would dare do this, this...terrible thing to his friend?! He took off the cloak and spread it over Naruto, anchoring it down with sand, sealing any exposed wounds the cloak did not cover with hardened sand. He stood up, looking out over the dunes, his rage pulsing as he felt out through the sand for the would-be murderer's camp. He found it, and returning his gaze his gaze to Naruto's face while the sand whirled around him to surround him once more in a protecting cocoon, he saw his friend's eyes open, only slightly, but open still. The last thing Gaara thought before he gave in to his anger was this: _They should be glad that he's alive. If he'd been dead, they would've suffered._

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Naruto was in hell, he was sure of it. Where else could all this abominable pain have come from? The last thing he remembered was falling asleep looking at the heart of the fire; a deep, hypnotizing blue. Then pain so intense, that any scream of anguish he could've let out couldn't tear itself from his tortured body.

And then peace. No more misery was being inflicted on him. He would've sighed in relief had he not felt his life draining into the sand around him. _...I have to stop it...the bleeding...it'll alert Gaara to where I'm at...Gaara...where is he?...isn't he kazekage here?...Gaara?...Gaara?..._

"GAARA!"

This he'd screamed, trying to move, to drag himself away from the spot where his blood was. He regretted screaming in the first place and wished he'd never been born when he'd tried to move. First, screaming Gaara's name into the night had taken a lot of effort on his part and the fact that he was in the middle of all this godforsaken sand didn't help it either. Secondly, moving had torn some of his bigger wounds open wider, increasing the flow of blood out of his body. As he lay there, the life flowing out of him, going unconscious from the blood loss, he wondered, _Will Gaara really come? And if he does, will I be safe?_

He'd been drifting in a world of pain. Hell, as it's appropriately called. He didn't want to move, couldn't. He had even seen the village he'd left and his supposed friends. He was in hell, if that's what he was going to see. His torturous vision was interrupted when a snarl rent the night air close to him. It sounded like an enraged animal, and Naruto would've shaken his head while he thought, _Great, not only am I in hell, but I'm still alive, which means, of course, that any beast that comes along and eats me is going to eat me alive. That's a sucky way to die, if you ask me. I just wanted to bleed out, but no, life had to be even more bitchy and let this happen to me._

As he braced himself for what he thought was the inevitable, he was surprised not to feel the fangs of a predator sink into his flesh, but what seemed like a blanket bound around him, and a kind of sealant pressed into his wounds to stop the bleeding. He felt a little relief from the pain, and curious about where this stroke of luck had come from, he'd cracked open his eyes.

And seen Satan himself. He was dressed like Gaara, looked like him too, but that couldn't possibly be Gaara. They were friends, and this demon was looking at him with eyes that glowed red as sand swallowed him up and he disappeared into the ground without a sound. Naruto felt himself slipping away again, but this time out of exhaustion instead of blood loss. He fell unconscious, sure that he was bound for hell, sure that the only reason he was being kept alive was that the devil himself wanted to take him to an eternity of suffering.


	6. Chapter 5

1The sentries were the first to go. Posted on the very outskirts of the camp where the firelight didn't reach, they didn't stand a chance. Sand cocoons had encased them before they could react and their screams were muffled by the thick layers of sand. He killed them with a clench of his fist, and as the sand dropped back down to the earth, it was wet with the blood of its victims.

Meanwhile, oblivious the slaughter going on around them, the bandits were celebrating. Naruto had been alone, but the haul they'd stolen from him was good by their terms. Food, enough to go around at least once for the entire group, had been distributed as that night's dinner. The blanket and money had gone to Packatug, and the clothes had been left for first come, first serve.

As some of the men strutted around, showing off their newfound clothing, the sand nearest the fire gave a shudder, and then lay still. Nobody had noticed this, all except for Packatug. Paranoid, this did nothing to ease his suspicions of the world and those around him. Carefully, without making a sound, he gathered up the blanket, money, and what other few, measly possessions he had and made for the edge of the camp, where the few horses the band had were kept in a makeshift corral.

All he found we piles of bloody sand and broken wood. Backing away slowly, he turned back towards the fire, and what he saw made his already cold blood freeze in his veins. His horde, laughing at the antics of a few in a scuffle, were oblivious to the fact that a sand wall was steadily encasing them in an impenetrable barrier. With a gasp, he turned tail, trying to run for it. The sand suddenly gave way beneath him, sinking him up to his ankles before becoming solid. Desperately, he tugged at his feet, but they would not budge, and with a gentle pull, the sand smoothly began moving him towards the death trap. He fought and struggled, but to no avail.

An opening as wide as a man was all that was left as an escape route as Packatug was moved inside the wall. As soon as he was inside, the sand loosened his boots, and as his robbers watched him with quizzical eyes, he scrabbled around and tried to get back through. It was too late. The wall had sealed behind him, and as he dug frantically at the sand, the band he led finally took notice of the barrier that had surrounded them. Hoarse shouts and cries were heard throughout the camp as they took whatever they could: spears, swords, daggers, pots, wood; and tried to break through, but it was hopeless.

The camp fell silent as a terrified scream ripped the still night air. One of the men had looked over at the fire, thinking he could use a burning torch to burn through the grit. Right before his eyes, a sand cocoon had risen out of the ground, and as the sand fell away, a horrifying sight greeted his eyes. It was the kazekage himself, only the descriptions of Gaara's appearance were nothing compared to what the thief was facing now. He looked exactly like he had been described countless times, but no words could've conveyed the awesome aura of power that radiated from him. He was dressed in the robes of his station, red hair and tan skin visible beneath the ----, but where the green eyes should have been, there were smouldering red coals gazing back at him.

As he screamed, Gaara had raised his hand, palm facing the bandit, and with that, a cocoon of sand had enveloped the screaming man. Through the inescapable encasing, the gang could hear the terrified screams, and as they watched, horrified, the clenching of Gaara's fist silenced those sounds forever, the sand cocoon turning a dusky red color as the blood soaked in.

Gaara barely opened his mouth, and what he said came out like a hiss, but all could distinctly hear what he said in the silence that pervaded the camp. "I would speak to your leader," Gaara whispered, and as heads turned to seek out the coward, Packatug was spotted up against the wall. A couple of his own men grabbed him, and against his begging and threatenings, they led him to the fire, throwing him down on his hands and knees at the feet of the enraged ruler. As Gaara's gaze fell on him, a shiver ran through Packatug, the feeling that he would not be alive much longer heavy upon him, and he froze. He would not meet Gaara's eyes and that seemed to anger the already maddened kazekage. With a kick at Packatug's stomach that left the would-be horde leader gasping and writhing on the ground, Gaara spoke in a soft, even tone that made everyone around him shudder with dread.

"Earlier tonight, you beat and nearly killed a stranger," he said, his gaze never leaving the still squirming Packatug, "He was one of my friends. Granted, I did not know he was coming, else I would've provided protection, but still, you will not get away with this." As Packatug was just getting his breath back, he felt the sand shift beneath him, and with what little air in his lungs that he had, he opened his mouth and screamed the call of a dead man. He rose, higher and higher, until he was so high that he wouldn't survive the fall but that he could still be seen in the firelight. Sand flowed along his arms and legs as, slowly, it spread him out spread eagle. As it tightened around his neck, choking off his cries for mercy, Gaara spoke once more.

"This is what happens to my enemies, especially those who think they can get away with anything that they've done to my friends." And with that, the sand ripped Packatug apart, limb from limb. As the different pieces of him scattered, the sand would surround them, crushing them as they fell, so the band below was showered with the bloody grit instead of body parts.

As they shielded their faces, they looked at each other, shock evident on each face as they witnessed the death of their leader. What would happen to them now?, they wondered. They were soon answered as the sand rose up around each of them, slowly surrounding them, cutting off their air supply. As they choked on the grains as they tried to breathe, they each heard Gaara distinctly through their prisons, even though they knew that he was speaking barely above a whisper. "Same goes for you." And at that, Gaara killed them all in one fell swoop, crushing them all simultaneously, the bloody sand collapsing on the ground until there was nothing left but the glowing fire.

Gaara cocooned himself, sinking into the sand, leaving the piles of bloody sand to tell the tale of that gruesome night.


	7. Chapter 6

1As Gaara reappeared at Naruto's side, he noticed immediately that some of the more minor cuts and bruises were already healing well. _Well, what do you expect from someone who harbors a demon inside of them?,_ he thought, somewhat miserable at the thought but glad for it now, since Naruto was near death when he had left to avenge him.

He reached out, hesitated, then took the plunge as he started to stroke Naruto's cheek. He'd always held a soft spot for the blonde, and whatever had caused this sudden transformation in him hadn't changed that. If anything, Naruto new black hair and goth appearance had increased the sand kage's feelings for him, and as he sat next to Naruto's prostrate form, stroking his whisker marks, he felt content at killing Naruto's would-be murderers.

He felt Naruto stir under his caress, and as Gaara looked down at him, worry in his eyes and hope that Naruto would speak, Naruto opened his eyes and came face to face with Gaara's forest green gaze. He squeezed them shut once more, hoping that Gaara was just a hallucination, that he hadn't been found, that he wouldn't get turned over to Them, but when he opened them once more, there Gaara was, gazing intently at him.

Gaara couldn't say a word. What he had expected when Naruto opened his eyes was crystalline blue, not the iridescent emerald that stared back at him. What worried him even more was the emotion swimming in those green depths. Fear. "Don't worry, they're gone now, and they won't ever do that to you or another person ever again," saying it with confidence and, without realizing it, deep satisfaction in an effort to comfort Naruto.

The only effect the words had on Naruto was to make him shiver. The subtle meaning behind that one line had caused distorted images of what had happened to him an hour ago to flash before his eyes. He shook his head, which made him dizzy to no end, but he was surprised to find that it did nothing more than that. He made an effort to sit up, but he felt a restraining hand on his shoulder, pushing him back down onto the cool sand beneath him.

"You have more than a few broken ribs, possible internal bleeding, and I'm certain you've broken your leg in one or two places. I don't advise you to move," he heard Gaara say as he closed his eyes in pain, the aching in his chest that he hadn't noticed earlier rearing its ugly head, seeming to tear apart his chest for a few minutes, his breath coming in shallow gasps all the while. Gaara sat next to him, helpless to do anything in this situation, not knowing much of the healing arts. When Naruto could breathe easily once more, Gaara spoke again.

"I have to take you back..." He didn't make it past that as Naruto burst out from under the cloak at the words, punching Gaara in the jaw as he made a run for it. Gaara shook his head, stunned from blow, but thanks to Naruto's multiple wounds, there wasn't much strength behind it and he hadn't been able to get far, collapsing only a few yards from where he'd been lying. Gaara wiped a trickle of blood from his lip off with his arm as he looked over at Naruto, surprised at what he had done and that he was able to move that much and that quickly with his injuries.

"What'd you do that for?" he asked, astonished completely. All Naruto did was attempt to crawl away, but it was no use. He knew that what Naruto had done was not a wise decision, and he could see that Naruto knew it now, too. Putting weight on his broken leg caused him to collapse not far from where he'd started and falling on chest made his broken ribs sear pain so intense that combined with the agony of his leg he passed out again.

Gaara sighed, moving the sand under Naruto move towards him. He heard Naruto muttering under his breath, and puzzled as to what Naruto could be muttering when he was unconscious, he put his ear next to his face, his eyebrows contracted with confusion at what he heard.

"...Don't...me back...that place...kill me...trying...escape...can't hide...Gaara...turn me in...must...get away..."

As Gaara straightened up, he looked around. To his left, the trail that was supposed to be the road in this part of the country stretched on endlessly in either direction. He couldn't travel that way, he would be recognized or attacked. To his right was the endless desert and, hundreds of miles away, the capital and his house. His normal way of travel would probably kill Naruto. He might wake up on the course of travel, panic, and suffocate before Gaara would realize anything way wrong.

Gaara sighed again, looking at Naruto's face, contorted in fear and pain despite the fact that he was unconscious. "You should be glad I like you so much, _little fox_," he said, stroking his cheek once more. Carefully, avoiding moving any of his broken bones, he placed Naruto's hands on his chest, straightened out his legs as best as he could, and replaced the cloak around Naruto's body, noticing that he growing cold again. Directing the sand, he made it form a natural mold around Naruto's body that would keep him still during transport, and without missing a beat, he covered the camp that had almost been Naruto's gravesite over with a nearby dune.

Turning towards the east, he sat down cross-legged on the sand that he had hardened into a kind of platform beneath him, and with his precious cargo secured, he made for the capital, leaving the ghosts of death behind completely.


	8. Chapter 7

1Naruto was having a nightmare. He floated in and out of many different places: the home he had forsaken, the camp where he'd nearly died, the room at the inn where he'd spent that torturous night, and then to that devil he'd seen before passing out the second time, the one that had looked like Gaara. Subconsciously, he felt himself struggling, but he couldn't move.

_Oh my god!,_ Naruto thought, panic rising in his thoughts, _Gaara betrayed me! He tied me up or something and now he's taking me back! No!_ He struggled to free himself even more, but then he felt a soothing touch on his cheek, just stroking it, and he heard the familiar voice of Gaara speaking to him, "Never fear, you are safe with me." Repeated over and over, Naruto, with a slight smile gracing his face as he sank back into sleep, relaxed.

_God, give me strength to resist the temptation_, Gaara thought, withdrawing his hand after he was sure Naruto was still. He turned his face back towards the east, pink and orange just barely tinging the wispy clouds above the horizon as the capital came in sight in the distance. _I know that he's a straight one, and I'd rather not let him know how I feel about him, unless he somehow changes and I'm sure that he can return them._ He shook his head, slightly confused by his train of thought. It hurt his head a bit, so he focused his attention on the city ahead as it grew larger and larger in his sight.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Naruto swam slowly up from the well of unconsciousness and felt someone moving him around, stretching the limbs that weren't broken from their cramped position. He felt immense relief and he even helped them by stretching just a little bit. He had no memory of what had happened after he'd punched Gaara and tried to run, but he didn't care. He thought nothing could be better, when suddenly his arms and leg were seized, he felt the prick on his arm, and then he was let go.

Confused, he lay there for a while, trying to figure out what had just happened. It had happened so fast, he hadn't registered the fact that there might be something behind that prick he'd felt on his arm until five minutes later. He tried to open his eyes, and was scared to find that he couldn't! He tried to move his arms, legs, toes, nose, anything! But no matter what he did, no matter how hard he concentrated, he couldn't move at all.

Obviously, the people who had injected him with whatever figured out that he couldn't move anymore, so they went to work on him. He felt his shirt tugged off and his pants carefully pulled away, as much as to not damage them as his broken leg. He felt his cuts bandaged up, the deep wound in his head stitched up, and he tried to prepare himself for when they would set his leg, but he failed miserable when they jerked the ends of bone back into place. He passed out before he could hear what they were going to do to his ribs.

"The demon seems to have taken care of the minor bruises and cuts. I think we can safely leave his chest alone. It will take care of it." Then Naruto woke again, in agony with his throbbing leg and wishing he could move so he could tear apart who ever'd done it. He felt another prick in his arm, and with a _Oh great, here we go again_, he slipped into a medically-induced coma.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gaara had him moved from the hospital to one of his guest rooms on the second floor of his home. As he gazed at the sleeping figure, bandaged and surrounded by machines, he felt once more the anger at the bandits who had done this to Naruto. But a little of it, he was surprised to find, was directed at Naruto. _He should've told me he was coming,_ he thought, his eyes hardening as he followed the train of thought, _He knows I would've provided him protection, most likely myself, and not wanting to go back to Konoha and me 'turning him in'? What was all that about?_

But watching Naruto a little bit longer, the gentle rising and falling of his chest, the steady drip of the painkiller nearby, the constant reassuring beep of the heart monitor, his eyes softened. Summoning some sand, he made it push a chair to where he was standing, and as he sat down, gazing at the face relaxed in sleep, he wished that whenever he'd turned over in his own bed that he could see that same face to assure him in the night.


	9. Chapter 8

1Over the next few days, Gaara went about his daily activities: governing the sand country, hearing disputes, and assigning missions. But never far from his mind was that second floor guest room full of beeping machines and the steady breathing of sleep. He'd kept a constant bedside vigil every night, watching that black hair grow steadily out, revealing the shining blonde that Naruto truly was.

Sometimes, he would stroke the soft cheek when he couldn't resist, and once, Naruto had turned into his hand, smiling slightly, making Gaara's little stroke a caress. Gaara had been ecstatic, and when he'd gone to bed that night, he'd been able to sleep in peace.

Disturbing dreams haunted him at night. He couldn't sleep for what would confront him when he closed his eyes. But ever since Naruto came, he could sleep easily despite the disturbing dreams, and sometimes without them.

Tonight, the medics were going to pay their daily visit, to make sure everything was going well with Naruto's recovery. As they checked the bandages and splints, Gaara was happy to find that most of them were coming off, a sign that Naruto was healing in those areas. The only thing that the medics weren't happy with, however, was his broken leg.

"It seems that the nine-tailed fox had too much to deal with all at once," one said, peering closely at the leg inside it's splint.

"So it will have to heal naturally," said the other, the first nodding in agreement.

Gaara looked at Naruto's face, the oxygen mask steaming whenever he breathed. "But does this mean that he can come out of the coma?" he asked softly, turning his cold green gaze back onto the medics.

"Of course it does," said the first again, nodding sagely.

"That was only a precaution so he wouldn't hurt himself more. He had a lot of injuries." said the second, nodding in the same way. Gaara had just one more question.

"When will you bring him out?"

Without even looking at each other, the two answered simultaneously.

"Immediately!!!"

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Naruto mind had been active even in his catatonic state. He'd thought about what to do when he figured out how to wake up, cursed his bad luck, and he'd also been dreaming some of the time. And having nightmares.

That awesome demon of hell that he'd seen the night Gaara came for him haunted his thoughts. When it almost seemed too much to bear, sometimes he would feel a light touch on his cheek, and it soothed him. It drove the monster away and left his dreams peaceful. Once, it had been hurting him, scorching him with it's red gaze and driving fear deep into his heart. He cried out, but only in his dreams. He yearned for the touch that would save him, needed it, almost like a drug.

And once more came the gentle touch. So glad for it, so enfolded in its blessed relief, he gathered his strength, and turning his head into the hand that had saved him, felt the palm rest against his cheek, the fingers entwine in his steadily growing hair. And there he rested, safe from the demon once more.

Later, he felt himself being poked and prodded, and it was this that was annoying him now. He felt some of his bandages being removed and almost thought he heard Gaara and some other unfamiliar voices, but he must've been dreaming. They were talking about waking him up. _As if they'd do that when they could just hand me over to the Leaf Village without a struggle,_ he thought bitterly, anger flaring in his mind, _Hell, why not just kill me now while I lie here defenseless. Save themselves the trip._ And right about then, hell broke loose.


	10. Chapter 9

1As the two medics prepared a needle, two more walked in the door.

"What's going on here?" a man asked, looking at the first pair of medics working at Naruto's beside.

"May I ask what you're doing here?," Gaara replied, tensing himself and readying his sand, hidden away as it was.

"We came here to perform Master Uzumaki's daily checkup," the other replied, a woman.

Gaara looked at her warily. Woman in the sand country didn't lie, at least, not usually, especially about something as serious and important as this. Taking care to make sure the second pair didn't see, he slowly unclenched his fists, letting the sand that was hidden under the floorboard relax into piles.

"There must've been a mistake," he said, speaking softly, "the hospital must've accidently sent two squads instead of the usual one."

"There's no mistake," said the man again, scrutinizing the other two medics carefully, "the hospital is very precise when it comes to home cases, especially ones that take place in your house, and speaking of the hospital, I don't recognize either of you from the staff and why aren't you wearing the standard sand country medical badge?–"

As Gaara looked confusedly from one pair to the other, the first medic threw two kunais, killing both of the other medics without once looking away from his work. At the same time the other had turned and had begun to attack Gaara. It was an assassination attempt!

As Gaara easily fended off the pitiful blows with fist and kunai from the second medic, he looked around for the first, the twin of his attacker. The first was just flicking the needle, making sure no air bubbles were present. When he turned around and saw Gaara looking at him, he flashed an evil smile.

"Well, Kazekage-sama, it seems that this one won't be waking up for a long time. I'll just give him some poison to try and help it along. Don't worry, nobody will miss him. It'll be just like putting a mangy stray dog to sleep!" And with a laugh, he bent over Naruto and swabbed his arm.

For one moment, one moment, Gaara was distracted. The death that hovered over his beloved's was almost too much to bear. But as Gaara cocooned the medic in sand and crushed him along with the poisoned needle, the second got through his protection and sliced neatly across Gaara's jugular.

Blood spurted from the gaping wound as Gaara collapsed back into a chair, trying to staunch the flow. His attacker backed off, snarling, holding a kunai out in front of him to ward off any possible attacks. Gaara just stared at him with his cold jade eyes.

"Who're you working for?"

The words came out with a bubbling rasp to it. The fake medic also might've partly severed his trachea. He was proud of himself.

"Well, seeing as how you're probably going to die from blood loss in about 5 minutes or suffocation, whichever comes first," he sneered, pacing up to the end of Naruto's bed. "We're working for an organization that has its eyes set on every ninja village in existence. Even now, as you die, other villages are being infiltrated and soon, other kages will be dying, same as you."

He left Naruto's bed, pacing forward until he stood directly in front of the Gaara, leaning over and leering at him. "It's too bad that you can't send any messages in time," he laughed.

"It's too bad that you're going to hell," said another. As Gaara watched, five fingers with claws wreathed with fire-red chakra pierced through the fake medic's neck, blood spurting as he fell to the ground, dead. As he fell, Gaara had eyes for only one thing, and that was the person standing before him.

Naruto stood panting next to the crumpled body, his hand covered in blood. His nails shrank back and the chakra aura faded. He slumped and almost collapsed, but when Gaara made a move to help him, he laughed and feebly straightened up again.

"Oh, don't worry," Naruto jibed, limping around the body and to come to Gaara, "I'm just really tired from lying in that bed for who know's how long. You, on the other hand, are about to die because he cut your carotid and you're worried about me?" Gaara smiled, however weakly, and as Naruto carefully began to tear long strips from the kazekage robe, his eyes rolled up into his head and he went unconscious.


	11. Chapter 10

1Naruto tried his best not to freak out, but he was. He wouldn't admit it to himself, but he was. He began to work himself into a frenzy, tearing the strips and binding Gaara's wound, tearing and binding, tearing and binding.

_So much blood_, he thought, trying his best to stop the flow, binding strips of cloth around the wound, _Too much blood. He'll die if I don't do something soon._ It took him awhile to realize that he'd almost completely ripped off all of Gaara's sleeve and had bound it around his neck, making it appear three times bigger than normal.

"At least I can't see the blood anymore," he murmured as he hoisted Gaara up by his exposed arm, throwing it over his shoulders. But as he turned to walk away, he slipped on something. He looked down...and regretted it.

Blood. It was everywhere. It covered the floor, the walls, the ceiling, the bed. Wait, there was something wrong with the bed. Blood had spattered it from headboard to foot, but there was a hole, an absence of it when it came to the pillow. It was puzzling. Strange. But he didn't have time for this. _Gaara is dying because of me!_

He limped out of deadly room, past the bodies of the real medics lying on either side of the door, and down the hall. _I think...Temari's room was down here._ He struggled under Gaara's dead weight. He paused to catch his breath, then he listened carefully to here Gaara's. It was shallow, but there.

He made it to the room, but nothing was in there. "Damn," he swore under his breath, "I forgot she moved downstairs." He made his way to them, and looking down, he prayed for the strength to be able to climb down them with his broken leg and Gaara.

After a time, nearly dropping Gaara and missing some steps and almost falling down the stairs, he made it to the landing. As he strained towards the door he thought led to Temari's room, the front door opened. As he turned, exhausted and panting, he saw Temari coming in laughing happily. "Gaara-kun," she called, turning and closing the door, "I just heard the funniest–"

She stopped, having opened her eyes. The scene before her was dumbfounding. There stood Naruto in the middle of the entrance hall, her brother draped across his back, blood dripping from a makeshift bandage on Gaara's neck. Naruto looked back, still struggling to remain upright, but he failed. With a gasp and a sigh, he fell, Gaara along with him. The spell of silence was broken as Temari rushed over, shaking Naruto, trying to wake him up to tell her what happened, but Naruto was gone.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Naruto woke up in a clean room. He'd been moved to one in an opposite wing, as far away from the scene of gore that could be managed. He got up, restless. What had happened to Gaara? Had he been able to get him to Temari in time? Where was Temari? He limped back and forth, trying to figure out the answers, when he noticed something on the far wall.

It was a floor-length mirror. He hobbled over to it, but when he saw his reflection, he shrank back in horror. The mysterious disappearance of the blood on the bed was solved. The missing spatter was all over his face, arms, and chest! And he didn't look like himself.

The face staring back at him was hollow-looking and thin. Those eyes that looked at him from the mirror couldn't be his. They were sunken in deep, almost surrounded by black shadows. The hair was grown out, almost down to his chin, black giving way to shining golden blonde. He felt weak.

_This can't be me,_ he thought as he ran his fingers over his face, over the patterns of blood that were all over. But then he saw something in the reflection that lit up his wan features.

He turned to see Gaara, a new bandage around his neck, walking into the room on his own, accompanied by Temari. Naruto, too weak to even think of rushing over to greet him, met him halfway at the bed, sinking onto it's side with a grateful smile.

"I see you're not dead," he chuckled dryly, trying his best to be nonchalant about the entire episode. "It seems I got you help in time."

Gaara smiled, sitting down in a nearby chair while Temari stood behind him and put a protective arm on his shoulder. "Yes, it seems that the whole thing was an assassination attempt on my life," Gaara whispered, the soft words cutting through the air like knives. "I've sent epistles to the other countries warning them of the danger. I only hope they reach them in time."

At this, Naruto despaired. Surely he'd sent one to Tsunade-sama. _Of course he sent one to her,_ he thought, scolding himself mentally, _She's one of the kages isn't she? And she'd be in danger right? But did he tell her...that I'm here?_

Naruto looked over at Gaara, and found he was looking directly into his eyes. As they connected, Naruto had a feeling Gaara was trying to figure something out but couldn't. Naruto felt a little weird. Was there something about him that Gaara was intrigued about? He looked questioningly at Temari, but she either gave no sign she knew or she didn't know herself.

All of this passed within about ten seconds, when Gaara spoke again.

"I did send one to the hokage," he said, watching Naruto carefully out of the corner of his eye to see his reaction. He was rewarded. Naruto went paler than he already was and, feeling through the little grains of sand that still clung to Naruto's clothes, his heartbeat and breathing skyrocketed.

"What did you tell her?" Naruto asked, trying to act casual, but failing. Even Temari was noticing now that something was up that she didn't know about. She gazed down at the back of Gaara's head from behind the chair. _What running in that head of his? And what's going on that I don't know about but Gaara and Naruto do?_

"The generic greetings that have to be exchanged, the wishes of health and prosperity, oh, and..." Gaara trailed off slightly, still scrutinizing Naruto. Almost unconsciously, Naruto was leaning forward, waiting for what Gaara would say.

"...what that stupid medic told me before you so graciously finished him off." Gaara smiled. The undisguised relief that covered Naruto's face told him many things.

One, Naruto was on the run.

Two, that Naruto didn't think he could trust anyone, even his own friends.

And Three, they needed to talk.

"Temari, could you leave us? I'd like to speak to Naruto alone for a while." He looked round at her, careful not to crane his neck and rip the bandages. She looked at him awhile, trying to discern the meaning behind his request, but for all her effort she was met only with a flat, green gaze. She shrugged, warning him not to tire himself out, and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her.

With the click of the shutting door, Gaara turned back around and caught Naruto with his eyes. "Kankuro wanted me to write to Tsunade-sama and tell her that you were here," he whispered, leaning forward and interlocking his fingers, resting his chin on his hands and gazing into Naruto's still iridescent emerald gaze, "So, _little fox_, tell me why I didn't."

Naruto looked back at him. _Little fox?_, he wondered, rolling the nickname around in his mind, _not half bad. Kinda like it..._

"_Little fox_? I'm waiting."

Shaking himself, he thought back to when it all started. "You better get comfortable," he said, his voice husky and strained, "it's a LONG story."

Gaara just chuckled and settled in. "Believe me _little fox_, I've got time."

So Gaara sat there, listening intently, as Naruto poured out the story from beginning to end, from the threatening things that had happened in Konoha all the way to the night he'd punched him. And Gaara sat there, taking in the story, like sand soaking up blood.


	12. Chapter 11

1By the time Naruto's tale was finished, it was early the next morning. Stars still dotted the sky, but were gradually disappearing. They had been interrupted only once when Temari had come in bearing a tray of food for them. She'd looked from one to the other, trying to decipher their expressions, but Gaara's remained emotionless while Naruto had looked away, his face more drained than before.

Gaara sat back, going over Naruto with a trained eye. The piercings, the black hair, the clothes he'd found him in; it all made sense that he was trying to disguise himself. But this conspiracy theory about the whole of Konoha wanting to kill him and sending out missives to all the other village kages to notify them of Naruto's extermination was wild, whatever Naruto believed. But the fear in Naruto's eyes was unmistakable.

While Gaara had been thinking all of this, Naruto had been looking at him, desperation written clearly across his face. _Oh please believe me!_, he thought urgently, almost willing Gaara to believe him, _Please don't make me go back._ Gaara opened his mouth to speak. The moment of truth had arrived.

"I received no such missive."

Naruto stared at Gaara's dispassionate face. Was this the truth or was Gaara lying so he could lull him into a sense of safety before taking him back...to that place. Gaara answered his unspoken question.

"Don't you think I would've taken you back by now or killed you already if I had?"

Naruto still wasn't sure, not even trying to hide the suspicion that was written clearly across his face. Gaara sighed. He couldn't help it. _The fear he's feeling is so irrational,_ he thought, exasperated at his friend, _but then, not much can scare him, and no matter how weird this story is, I think…_

"I believe you, and you can stay hidden here for as long as you like. You will have the run of the house, and you can go anywhere you want, except for my bedroom," e_ven though I'd rather see you there instead of a guest room_, he thought with a grimace. "You must stay inside at all times, and if you feel a need to, you may re-dye your hair and I can get you proper contacts."

Naruto was stunned. _To trust me so much_, he thought, tears coming to his eyes, _he's a true friend._

"However, I would like to know about this demon you saw before you went unconscious for the second time."

_Of course. There's a catch._

"Well, there's not much to tell," he whispered, his eyes glazing over as he looked at his hands.

_xXxFlasbackxXx_

_He'd been drifting in a world of pain. Hell, as it's appropriately called. He didn't want to move, couldn't. He had even seen the village he'd left and his supposed friends. He was in hell, if that's what he was going to see. His torturous vision was interrupted when a snarl rent the night air close to him. It sounded like an enraged animal, and Naruto would've shaken his head while he thought, __**Great, not only am I in hell, but I'm still alive, which means, of course, that any beast that comes along and eats me is going to eat me alive. That's a sucky way to die, if you ask me. I just wanted to bleed out, but no, life had to be even more bitchy and let this happen to me.**_

_As he braced himself for what he thought was the inevitable, he was surprised not to feel the fangs of a predator sink into his flesh, but what seemed like a blanket bound around him, and a kind of sealant pressed into his wounds to stop the bleeding. He felt a little relief from the pain, and curious about where this stroke of luck had come from, he'd cracked open his eyes._

_And seen Satan himself. He was dressed like Gaara, looked like him too, but that couldn't possibly be Gaara. They were friends, and this demon was looking at him with eyes that glowed red as sand swallowed him up and he disappeared into the ground without a sound. Naruto felt himself slipping away again, but this time out of exhaustion instead of blood loss. He fell unconscious, sure that he was bound for hell, sure that the only reason he was being kept alive was that the devil himself wanted to take him to an eternity of suffering._

_xXxEnd FlashbackxXx_

Gaara looked at him for a moment, thinking about what Naruto had seen. "What if I told you that I knew who that was?"

Naruto whipped his head up. Could Gaara know who or what that monster might've been? "Tell me! Tell me please," he begged, eager for the answer to his nightmares.

Gaara hesitated. "You're probably not going to like this," he started.

"No, truly, I need to know," Gaara heard Naruto whisper, and he was shocked to see Naruto suddenly kneeling in front of him, his hands clasped in Naruto's. Gaara blushed a dusty rose, but hid it by rising and guiding Naruto back to the bed. He walked over to the window, leaning against the wall beside.

"What if I told you…it was me?"

Naruto was puzzled, but he laughed it off. "It couldn't be you," he gasped, laughing despite his newly healed ribs' aching protest.

"But what if it was?" Gaara said, distracted by Naruto's disbelief, turned away and looked at Naruto with one green eye.

"I'd probably not believe you 'cause you're my friend and that, whatever it was was looking at me like it wanted to kill me."

"But what if I told you that those eyes weren't meant for you, but for the men that had beaten you almost to death?"

Naruto stopped laughing. He couldn't comprehend what he was hearing. That demon, that devil, that hell bringer, what if it had been Gaara? He got up, despite the sudden movement to push him back down by Gaara, and limped back in forth in a sort of shuffling pace.

If it had been Gaara, that would explain the sand sealant and cloak to keep him warm. The eyes he could justify behind the fact that Gaara had been enraged because of what the bandits had done to him.

"Okay," he murmured, still thinking, "if I believed it was you, what would you say?"

Gaara felt a glimmer of hope that Naruto might understand if he explained. "After you told me your story, it makes sense that you wouldn't tell anyone where you were, not even me, but that was also your downfall."

He paused, looking for a reaction. Naruto just kept shuffling back and forth, not looking at him. Gaara continued, hesitantly. "That campsite was a trap, the smoke from the fire a signal. The bandits came and almost murdered you like countless others. Grains from the sand that was soaking up your blood came and showed me where you were before you could become another victim. I was angry that they had done this to you, so I went after them. You must've seen me before I left. Maybe that was part of the reason for the…well, the events that happened upon my return to the campsite."

Naruto just kept shuffling back and forth in an endless pace until Gaara came over and tried to lead him back to the bed. Naruto tried to shrug him off, but with a strength that caught Naruto off guard, Gaara grabbed him by the wrists and pushed him down into the soft covers.

As Gaara gazed down at him for some sign of understanding, his green eyes seemed to surround Naruto. His face was all that he saw, the sign of love standing out on his pale skin. Gaara's hair, slightly longer than usual, fell down around his face, framing it in rust red.

As Naruto took this all in, he did something that surprised himself. A strange feeling came over him, and he blushed. He never blushed like this when he was around Hinata or Sakura. Why was it so different now? Why was he even blushing in the first place?!

Naruto, confused by his feelings and slightly disconcerted by Gaara still looking down at him, wrenched himself free of Gaara's grasp and sat up on the bed.

"Don't try to get up again, else I might have to use more force," Gaara whispered, not taking his gaze off of Naruto. Naruto nodded, and turned away, leaning against the huge pillows plumped for him.

"Do you understand?" Gaara asked, subconsciously holding his breath for the answer. With a slight nod, Naruto made Gaara's hopes soar, but he didn't show it.

"I must go," he said, making for the door, "Temari or the servants will see to whatever need you may have, but I suggest you rest."

He didn't look back, but he could sense Naruto's eyes upon him. As he left, he paused in the doorway. "Until tonight Naruto."

As the door closed behind him and he strode down the many-doored hall, he shook his head, trying to clear it. Was he imagining things or had he seen Naruto blush when he'd pushed him onto the bed?

He shook his head once more, brushing aside the thought for later, unaware that his _little fox_ was back behind the door, sinking into a confused dream of Gaara's face and the feel of his hands holding down Naruto's wrists.


	13. Chapter 12

1His hair gleaming like obsidian in the sun, Naruto limped through the garden in the center of the mansion. Surrounded on all sides by the different rooms, he could enjoy the sunlight without being seen.

He'd been too nervous to believe that Gaara hadn't received any news of his disappearing from Konoha, so over the next couple days he'd re-dyed his hair, and, as promised, Gaara had given him proper contacts. But Gaara had gone beyond even that and had gotten him clothes and even a few rings and studs to go in his piercings. Getting used to Naruto's new look, both found that they liked the new Naruto better than the old one.

This new Naruto looked like a real bad ass. Shiny black hair and piercings all over his face with disturbingly iridescent green eyes, he easily could pass himself off as someone else if not for the whisker marks. Naruto loved the different pairs of bondage pants Gaara had gotten him, especially a pair with red laces down the sides and chains and leashes literally dripping off them. He had even gotten Naruto a garnet ring that matched the red of his pants.

He was wearing them today, and walking felt awkward, his leg still in its cast. Wearing a tight red shirt over his thin frame, he took what could be called a shuffle around the garden, pausing to sit on a bench next to the pond to take a break.

As he stared into the water, watching the koi fish kiss the surface of the water before moving back down into its murky depths, he thought back to that time a couple days ago after he'd told Gaara everything.

_xXxFlashbackxXx_

_"__**Little fox?**__**Little fox**__ wake up."_

_Naruto felt a gentle hand lay itself upon his stomach, and after a moment's hesitation, fit it the hollow of his stomach and run itself over his muscles. Not at all awake, Naruto had smiled in his sleep, curling around the hand, placing his own over it to hold it there._

_Now Gaara had gone quite red in the face by then. He hadn't been so sure about touching Naruto in the first place, but when he noticed he wasn't waking up, he thought he had to tap him. He'd carefully put his hand on Naruto's stomach, fully intending to shake him awake, but he froze. _

_**Those muscles**__, Gaara groaned inwardly, already aroused by Naruto's angelic face in sleep, now made worse by the clearly defined form sitting under his palm, __**I've got to resist**__. But he couldn't. Checking to make sure that he wasn't awake, he started to run his hand over Naruto's abs, feeling the hardness of them._

_Glancing up to make sure he hadn't woken Naruto, he was not only shocked to see Naruto still asleep, but smiling! What confused him even more was the fact that Naruto's body suddenly curled toward him, Naruto's hands finding his one and holding it on his stomach._

_Gaara felt like he could explode. __**Does he have feelings for me or is this just some kind of trick?!**__, he thought, desperate to figure out the answer and get his hand out of Naruto's grasp, just in case he didn't feel the same and would get creeped out by Gaara touching him._

_Gaara had just managed to free himself and step away from the bed when Naruto's eyes cracked open. He sat up, looking down and running his hands over his stomach as if trying to find something._

_"Anything wrong?" Gaara asked, anxious to see if Naruto knew it had been him._

_"No," Naruto answered, still looking around in confusion, "it's just that…no, it's stupid."_

_"What's stupid?" Gaara said, almost breathless with expectation._

_"When I was in my coma, I'd have nightmares, really bad ones," Naruto confessed, clasping his hands together in an effort to stop them shaking. "Sometimes they would get so bad that I'd go almost crazy, but then..."_

_"You don't need to tell me if you don't want to," Gaara began, opening up the conversation a little bit more._

_"No, I need to," Naruto sighed, taking a deep breath, "But sometimes a touch, a hand...I'd feel it on my cheek, and the nightmares would go away, and I'd be able to sleep in peace."_

_Gaara was stunned._

_"And I thought I felt that touch again," Naruto whispered, and Gaara was surprised to see tears in Naruto's eyes. Naruto suddenly looked at Gaara, an edge of desperation in his voice as he spoke._

_"Do you think it's a guardian angel?" he asked, still trembling, and then with a hint of hope, he whispered, "or my soulmate trying to protect me before we meet?"_

_Gaara couldn't say a word. He just mumbled something incoherent and left the room, unable to answer the question hovering in the air._

_xXxEnd FlashbackxXx_

Gaara had been watching Naruto stretch his legs from an upper window, unseen by the black creature below. He saw Naruto zone out, and when his hands ran over his stomach, he knew what he was thinking about.

_If only I could tell him it was me!_, Gaara moaned inside, the aching tearing at him, _but I can't, not 'til I'm sure_.

He closed his eyes as he leaned against the window, clutching his sides as if to hold himself together. When he opened them again and looked down into the garden, Naruto had disappeared. He looked all around the garden, trying to find where he could've gone. Naruto was nowhere to be found.

As Gaara looked towards the pond once more, he noticed something that he hadn't seen before. There was a spot near the shore of the pond that the koi were avoiding, and near one end of it was a quick-fading trail of bubbles. Then Gaara saw something that made his blood run cold.

A pale hand floated lifelessly just under the surface of the water, a garnet ring sparkling on its finger.


	14. Chapter 13

1Gaara reacted in an instant. Suddenly there Naruto was, lying on a small hill of wet sand raised out of the ground, koi fish caught on its gently sloping sides flopping back into the dark water. Gaara climbed out of the window as quickly as he could, leaping down despite his kage robes and landing perfectly on the balls of his feet.

As he rushed over, he sent sand messages to his different guards, alerting them to the danger in the garden. He raised the sand hump, guiding it to the shore and lowering it carefully but as quickly as possible to the dry ground. As he did this, the ice that was his blood somehow got colder. He'd noticed that Naruto wasn't breathing.

As Gaara felt Naruto's carotid for a pulse, he silently worried and asked questions, keeping on his guard as he did so. _No use becoming another victim_, he thought, keeping his gaze on Naruto's still form, but keeping a sand eye constantly scanning the surrounding area for enemies.

But his immediate concern was why there seemed to be a hard object blocking his attempts at getting Naruto's pulse. As he leaned over to see Naruto's neck, he saw a small dart embedded in the skin directly on top of the carotid artery. As he carefully removed it, a small dot of blood appeared at the entry wound, but nothing more.

Looking at the tiny dart, he could tell it wasn't any he'd seen before. It had a slightly rounded middle, indicating that there was a chamber inside filled with who knows what. The hypodermic tip was so thin, the liquid must've been a slow-inject. _And I've been sitting here, trying to figure out if he's alive, but I can't worry about that now. Naruto isn't breathing!_

He tucked the needle into his pocket, turning his attention back to Naruto's still form. As Gaara checked his pulse once more, he found it beating weakly and steadily dying off. Quick as he could, he started performing CPR, pumping Naruto's chest, trying to keep his heart beating.

_...13...14...15, now 2 rescue breaths_, Gaara went over in his mind, _tilt the head back, plug the nose, and..._

"Crap."

He was looking down at Naruto's now slightly open mouth. What came next probably wouldn't have bothered him much except for the feelings that were already being aroused by the mere thought of what he had to do next.

_Just grin and bear it_, he thought, _If I don't, he'll die._ And with that, he took the plunge.

_Just two breaths, that's all it is_, he thought over and over while he gave, first one, then two breaths before hurriedly straightening up once more and checking his pulse. _It's still weak, but it's there, no wait, it's faltering again!_

He closed his eyes, readying himself again, and once more, gave Naruto two rescue breaths. As he straightened up once more, he thought, _His mouth...tastes SO delicious! Wait! Stop thinking that!_

He checked his pulse, shaking his head to get the thoughts out of his mind. _His pulse is stronger_. He checked to see his chest rising and falling weakly, but surely. _And he's breathing. That's good...but then again, I could give him two more rescue breaths just for luck_. Looking to make sure nobody was around and cursing his guards' slow response, he bent over Naruto again, only this time, instead of trying to save his life, he tried to savor the feeling of kissing Naruto, despite the fact that it was one-sided.

Nothing fancy, just a simple kiss. But what was simple turned into something totally different when Gaara felt Naruto respond!

A tongue snaked up into Gaara's mouth, surprising him, but it didn't stop there. Naruto's hands circled around the back of Gaara's head, pressing him onto Naruto's waiting lips and deepening the kiss meant only to be a taste.

With his sand eye, Gaara knew that nobody was around, and that disconcerted him, but the thought was only at the back of his mind. Really, he had other things to worry about...or enjoy.

As they finally broke apart, Naruto was panting. Gaara didn't understand, at least until he heard Naruto try and speak.

"Gaara?"

Naruto's face turned from one side to the other, as if looking for Gaara. For some reason, he wasn't opening his eyes, as if he were blind. As Gaara grabbed Naruto's wrists and put the searching hands onto his face, Naruto felt everything: Gaara's lips, eyebrows, nose, ears, anything he could feel.

"Gaara, I'm too hot. I've got a fever or something. And why am I wet? Wasn't I just sitting on the bench? I remember getting up to go inside..."

He broke off. Gaara had turned away from Naruto's touch. The rust-haired kage had bent over to pick up the tiny dart he had set aside. Turning the little rounded missle around in his fingers, he wondered if what was inside of it was doing this to Naruto.

_Naruto has a fever, that much is obvious,_ he was thinking, keeping a hold of one of Naruto's hands for assurance, for either him or Naruto, he didn't know. "_He can't see_, _so there must be some blindness. Permanent or temporary? Probably the latter. I think whoever did this was trying to send a message._

He looked back at Naruto, and then gazed around. _Where are those damn guards?!_

He decided against waiting out in the open any longer than he had, scooping Naruto up into his arms. Naruto had gone unconscious, so his head hung back and his arms were held wide. Gaara carried in the crimson and black-clad figure, looking like he was carrying in a fallen angel.

As he layed him on the nearby couch, he checked around once more. _You know what?!_, firing up instantly for the lack of his guards' presence, _I'm going to find them right now whether they want to come or not!_

Closing his eyes in concentration, he felt out with his sand, keeping just enough with him to properly defend himself. He found the guards, but what he discovered startled him.

Using the sand, he dragged the still bodies of his guards back to him. They'd also been hit by darts, but these were different. The markings on them were thicker, less intricate, and of the symbols on them, he recognized one: **Death**.

Quickly, he shoved the bodies of the two deceased away, crouching protectively over Naruto. But he was distracted when he looked down at Naruto.

His condition had worsened **drastically**. He was sweating now, his eyes clenched tight instead of relaxed in the temporary blindness of only seconds before. His muscles, once relaxed and under his control, were tight and contorted, the coils looking like they were trying to rip themselves out of his skin. His panting had increased, and despite the fact that his arms were stiff, he was reaching out for Gaara with all of his might.

Gaara grasped Naruto's clenched fists together in his own pleading hands.

"What's wrong Naruto?!" he whispered, and despite the fact that it was said so quietly, Naruto seemed to hear, and responded in as soft a voice, "I'm dying..."

Kay, I know u guys hate me for the cliffhangers, but I love them too much! XD

Thanx for all the great reviews! I love when u tell me wat u like! ;)

I'm trying my best to try and start writing the other two again, but my creative juices are kinda stuck on this fanfic, so believe me, I've started new chapters for each of the other two. -

And if you want something to happen, PM me or mention it in ur review. I read all of them, so I'll notice it. :D

Oh, and if you want a different pairing, PM me only. I'd rather not have a story cluttered up by different suggestions. Kay? (-) 

Oh, and for anybody wondering, in the last chapter, it was supposed to be Naruto's hand floating just under the surface of the water with a garnet ring that Gaara gave him on his finger. Garnet is a blood-red almost black gem, for any who'd like to know! ;)


	15. Chapter 14

1Gaara froze. He almost dropped Naruto's hands, but instead he clung onto them even more, trying to will Naruto's health back into his body, but nonetheless, as the seconds passed, he grew paler, his breath shallower.

_What do I do?!_, Gaara thought desperately, his head whipping back and forth, looking up and down the hallway, _nobody is here other than me and Naruto, well, and the guards. Temari and Kankuro weren't due back for hours, and I was prideful enough to dismiss everyone from duty except for the minimum guard so I could have time alone to...observe...nevermind. The situation at hand calls for something, but for what, I do not know! And time is running out!_

The last thought was painfully reinforced as the sound of Naruto coughing began, and as he turned back to try and lend some kind of aid, he saw blood. Still holding onto Naruto's fists, he looked up and ran through the standard medical aid he'd learned. When nothing seemed to be enough to save a poisoned body from dying, he moved on to the few sand techniques that medics only from his village would know, and still, nothing seemed enough.

Then his mind came to rest on the image of a scroll, sealed immediately after he had learned its contents and hidden away in a vault that he held the only key to. Mentally, he broke the seal and began to scan the contents that he had memorized oh so many months ago. Techniques and secrets that could kill and destroy were at the top, but he dismissed those without a second thought. What he needed were at the bottom. Hurriedly, he went there with his mind, skipping all diagrams and writings in between, until he found what he wanted.**Techniques for Healers and the Skills Required for the Healing of Bodies** **that are to be Known Only to the Kazekage of the Sand Country** it had said in bold strokes when he'd first read it and there it was again, and as he skimmed through, he found so many things that could've helped Naruto before he had begun dying. _If only I had remembered this earlier, Naruto wouldn't be dying!_, he thought angrily to himself, but he needed to focus, needed to find something that could save Naruto from death that loomed ever near.

_There's nothing here! Don't tell me that the past kazekages didn't figure out a way to...wait! What's this?_ Gaara mentally zoomed onto the tiny writing scrawled on the very bottom. _The Exchange of Destruction? Why does that sound familiar? Nevermind, from what I can see, it will save Naruto, so no matter the cost, I'm gonna do it._

As he followed his own mental instructions: placing Naruto's body in a cleared space on the wooden floor; directing the sand to embed kunais every few degrees in a double circle, then arrange themselves into the symbols required for _The Exchange_.

_I have no time to draw the symbols in ink, my sand will have to do._

In a matter of seconds, the scene was set, and as he gazed on the archaic scene: the ritualistic symbols lying in sand on the floor, the kunais half buried in the floor with candles surrounding them, and at the center of the circle within the circle, lay Naruto, now barely breathing. As he walked slowly over towards the nearly still body, the sand drawing out of his way and reassembling itself into their respective symbols, his mind flashed back to a memory that had been slowly growing in the back of his mind.

_The Exchange of Destruction? I knew I recognized that name._

And then the images came.

_xXx Flashback xXx_

_It was long ago. A year ago, but the pain was still as fresh as it was then. He'd barely assumed the role of kazekage, and already people were praising him for his wisdom and acts under pressure. He didn't care. Throughout the course of training that had led up to his taking on the mantle of leading the sand country, he had worked hard to try and make sure he didn't slip up and reveal the reason why he avoided the gaze of one of his counselors, who was slightly older and taller than Gaara, by the name of Zelka._

_Gaara had encountered Zelka earlier in his life, but had ignored him and dismissed him as the same as the others, the ones that ignored him and cursed him for who he was._

_That had all changed one fateful day in an empty schoolroom. He'd been working alone, as usual, when he heard the familiar creak of its only door. He didn't care, didn't even turn around, just kept working on the studies that he was assigned. He was about fifteen then_, _naive, innocent, unblemished, at least, that was what had been crooned to him as he lay on the floor hours later, inside the encircling of 'protective' arms._

_Gaara had been caught from behind, whirled around as his chair was knocked aside, roughly shoved back into the desk as strong hands gripped the wrists of his defending hands and held them away, felt lips crushed to his with such force it took his breath away. Sand reared and suddenly the lanky, muscle-hardened body of Zelka hung in the air._

_"How dare you!" Gaara had yelled, furious at being caught off-guard and confused with the emotions that now swirled within him, "Stay away from me!"_

_But despite his better judgement, strange feelings erupted, and Gaara brought the sand and Zelka closer and closer until their faces were inches away from each other. "What have you done to me?!" Gaara asked in a soft voice, the question sounding small and scared rather than filled with the menace he'd intended. Zelka's deep, sensual voice only answered, "Let me down and I'll show you."_

_Against all he'd been conditioned to feel: distrust everyone, distance was the best defense, don't let anyone get close, he let Zelka down, releasing him from the sand's hold. Slowly, tenderly, Zelka had stepped forward and pressed his body to Gaara's, taking Gaara's hands and placing them on his hips, running his finger along Gaara's jawline, which quivered with confusion_ _and fear. And finally, the kiss, sweet and warm_ _and tentative_, _that Gaara almost drank in._

_The little surface kiss turned into a french, tasting and invading each other with a passion that Gaara had never known. At this point, Gaara had ended up perched on the edge of the desk, grasping the short sleeves of Zelka's shirt. As they started to full-blast make-out, the panting began, and with a jerk and a hoarse cry from Gaara, Zelka yanked Gaara's hair, pulling Gaara's head back and exposing his neck, which Zelka began kissing and sucking._

_Gaara's eyes rolled in his head, taken off guard by the intensity of the moment that he was in. And he wasn't prepared for what happened over the next few hours, but nonetheless, he survived, and more importantly, he was able to keep Zelka alive despite all the warnings that he wouldn't be able to have a lover because he would crush them with his sand in the throws of passion. More likely they didn't want him 'breeding', but that wasn't important right now. What was important was the person whose arms he was lying in and who kissed his face and his hair and called him precious._

_But it wasn't to last long. Soon, Zelka's true nature came out, becoming abusive_ _and rough, shocking Gaara and proving that everything he'd been taught before he'd become involved with Zelka was right. Gaara desperately tried to distance himself, tried to break off the relationship, but Zelka would have nothing of it. Even if Gaara thought he had succeeded in ending it, Zelka would be waiting in the shadows of a hallway, ready to shove him into another closet or hidden niche, leaving him weak and sometimes bloody hours later._

_But as soon as Gaara became kazekage, he resolved to end it there and then. He made a formal invitation to Zelka, under the pretense that they were to discuss political matters. Little did Gaara know that Zelka had other plans for him that night. As soon as the door closed, Zelka was on him, but Gaara shoved him away and held him in a sand cocoon, only Zelka's face exposed._

_"Leave me alone Zelka," Gaara ordered, using as forceful and official a tone as he could manage, "I'm not fifteen and desperate for your attention anymore. I'm eighteen, I 'm the kazekage, and I don't need you anymore."_

_"Oh, I think you will, you know, to comfort you in the days, months, years, eternity ahead?" Zelka had crooned in his silky voice, and Gaara knew something was wrong._

_"What have you done Zelka?"_

_"Oh, nothing, but you know that lovely little intern that you've taken a liking too? What's her name, Siann? Did you think that she could become your little friend? Help you overcome your demons?"_

_Zelka snorted at his joke, but Gaara's face had lost all of its bravado. Just like the first time, Gaara fearfully drew Zelka's face near and asked once more, "What have you done Zelka?"_

_"You know the funniest thing about small people?," Zelka taunted, his eyes never breaking from Gaara's, "Is that you never realize how much blood they have inside of them until you slit their throat and watch it drain out."_

_Gaara felt cold; his face, his hands, his entire body felt numb. Without a word_, _Gaara covered the airhole in the cocoon, feeling Zelka struggle inside against the grain. Gaara smiled at his own thought, and with a squeeze of his fist, ended that struggle._

_He sent the bloody sand to go mix and bury itself in the sand outside as he whisked himself through the sand underground to Siann's house. As he arrived, he could already feel the sand inside crying. He broke down the door, finding Siann in a pool of blood in her large front room. He could still feel life beating within her, but it was fading fast._

_"I've got to do something," he thought, and as he tried to think of something, he unintentionally had set up the room for The Exchange of Destruction. As he'd shaken himself out of his quick reverie, saw what he'd done, and thought it over, he decided it was the only way._

_"I have to save Siann."_

_Quickly, he'd done the handsigns needed, followed the instructions for the technique, and finally, the exchange began. But something went wrong, nobody knew what, but next thing Gaara knew, he had awakened in the hospital weeks later, and found out that Siann had died despite the attempt to save her and that Gaara had nearly died as well._

_"That's why it's called The Exchange of Destruction," his mentor told him at his bedside, "Only the kazekage is powerful enough to try and perform such a jutsu, and even then, only a minimal chance is given for success because the destruction of the two individuals is the more likely result."_

_xXx End Flashback xXx_

"I couldn't save Siann, but maybe I can save you Naruto," Gaara whispered, standing over Naruto's stilling form.

He began the hand signs.

Horse, Ox...

"And I'll look at it this way,"

Rat, Tiger...

"If I fail?..."

Dragon, Rabbit...

"At least we die together."

To all those who've been waiting weeks for this, here it is. -

And this chapter is WAY SUPER LONGER than my usual ones, so I hope I'm not forcing too much on you at once. Oo

My creative juices just got flowing and I couldn't stop. XD

Updates on the other stories are coming up soon, and I thank you for waiting and reviewing and I hope you enjoyed this chapter of Sand Absorbs the Blood and Tears. -


	16. Chapter 15

1 The Exchange of Destruction had begun. The grains of sand glowed, the kunais caught fire from the surrounding candles, and then the sand symbols and the circle Naruto was in caught fire as well, outlining him in heat. Dark orange energy slowly drained itself from Naruto to come to rest above his now dead body, forming into a fox above the body.

Then the circle that surrounded Naruto's, the outer circle, caught fire as well. Gaara crumpled to the ground, clutching his chest and nearly screaming with pain as his soul and life was torn from his body, forming into a red sand demon above him. Gaara's vision blurred and his heartbeat stopped as he took his last breath and then lay dead, feet from his love as the demon chakra hovered above his body.

The two demon energies faced each other, like they were facing each other down. But the jutsu had to continue, the urging power of the archaic symbols on the floor too compelling to ignore, so the two energies cautiously slunk across the burning line that divided the circles, watching each other as they descended into the bodies they were required to inhabit temporarily for the Exchange to work.

Two gasps of breath interrupted the burning of the sand, kunais, and candles as the eyes of both Gaara and Naruto whipped open and choked for breath as life reentered their bodies. However, Naruto's eyes were a darker green than usual, as the contacts he was wearing were darkened by the green eyes of Gaara's spirit and energy which now inhabited him. Gaara's eyes were blue with Naruto's soul. And as both lids fell shut, the energies were re-summoned from their hosts, leaving Gaara and Naruto dead again.

As the energies swirled above the lifeless bodies again, both demon chakras noticed they were considerably smaller than they were when they first came out. They looked at the bodies they belonged to and saw that half of each demon had been left in each body. They snarled in disbelief, but they had no choice in the matter. The Exchange had to be complete. The symbols burned with unvoiced rage as the demons tried to take back the chakra that had been left behind. They could not, so they resentfully slunk once again across the line dividing inner from outer, returning to the bodies they belonged to.

Once again, eyes whipped open and gasps of life-giving air were taken in, but both were pain-filled, as Gaara had taken half of the injured energy of Naruto, the energy that had been dying, and taken it into himself, sacrificing half of his healthy energy and giving it to Naruto in an effort to help him recover from the poison that had started to consume his life. Naruto was poisoned, but he would live by sharing the toxicity with Gaara's healthy body.

The fire of the burning sand symbols, kunais, and candles suddenly burnt itself out. The symbols and circles were burnt permanently into the floors. The kunais were nothing but piles of ashes, crumbled from the power it took to transfer the energies and retransfer them back to their original bodies. The floor, walls, and ceiling were covered in soot. Naruto and Gaara, however, were clean as they were before the ritual started.

Naruto was curled in a ball, the poison tormenting him, making him nauseous, coursing through his blood, making his skin burn, his insides twist in pain, but he was alive and he would survive. Gaara, nearby, was suffering nearly the same symptoms except for the fact that he was exhausted from performing the near-fatal jutsu.

Their ears to the floor, they both felt and heard the thundering of footsteps and shouts of concern in the forms of their names.

_Someone must've seen the smoke or something, maybe even saw the fire through a window or something. I only hope they were smart enough to bring a medic or two,_ Gaara thought, his body seizing slightly with the pain and effects of the poison. But his ears detected someone saying his name, only it was in a whisper and it was laced with pain. He realized it was Naruto, and as he turned towards the now ebony-haired blonde, he was surprised to see concern in his eyes.

"Gaara," Naruto said, choking slightly on the words and clenching teeth when a stab of pain wracked his body, "By all rights I should be dead. Whatever you did...I'm still alive. But are you okay? You look terrible."

Naruto managed a shaky laugh, and Gaara rolled his eyes. It was so like Naruto, despite the fact that he had been hit with a poisoned dart, nearly drowned, nearly died from being poisoned, gone though a risky jutsu where he could have died just as easily.

_Only Naruto could see humor in this situation_, he thought, smiling slightly and sighing, biting it back when a stab of pain went through his abdomen. At the same time, Naruto curled into a harder ball, letting out an unintentional whimper of pain.

"Gaara! Naruto! Where are you?!"

"Master Kazekage! What's your location?!"

_Oh good, Temari with reinforcements. Too bad that we don't need them anymore,_ Gaara thought sarcastically, nearly biting off the end of his tongue as the shouts began to give him a headache.

"My head is starting to kill me..." Naruto muttered, wincing as another shout of his name was let loose, the yells growing stronger as the pounding footsteps drew nearer and nearer.

Then Temari nearly slid into a wall as she skidded around a corner and then stopped like she really had hit a wall as she saw the scene that was laid before her, the guards nearly crashing into her in their mad rush to catch up to her. Temari's eyes were wide with shock and fear and the guards' jaws dropped in surprise as they viewed the room.

But someone pushed through the crowd, angrily muttering the whole time, even ignoring the blackened scene when they finally came to the front and instead went over and began examining both Gaara and Naruto. Gaara recognized the man as his oldest advisor, Caius, and relaxed in relief and then stiffened once again when that brought him more pain.

"They're both alive," Caius announced, softly, knowing that both were in pain.

"I could've told you that," Gaara growled softly, his voice carrying despite the murmuring of the guards. "I want you to take care of Naru–"

"No!"

Naruto's loud exclamation surprised everyone, especially Gaara, who looked like he had flinched when he'd said it.

"No," Naruto said more gently, "Gaara, you did something to save my life that made this entire room burn to the ground. You're in pain, you look sick, and you're exhausted. Treat him first. He's worst off."

Caius nodded his head in agreement, and snapping at the guards to come to attention and help him carry his kazekage to his room for treatment, Temari came over to Naruto, her eyes narrowed slightly in anger, fear, and suspicion. She crouched down over Naruto, still curled in his ball of pain.

"What happened here?" she said, her voice harsh as she gestured around at the blackened room and at the symbols burnt into the floor.

Naruto decided to give her the bottom line. "I was shot with a poison dart. The guards were killed. I was dying, and then I went unconscious. I woke up again and this is what I saw. That, and I saw Gaara lying on the floor, sick, tired, and injured. That's all I know. If you want to know the full story, I guess you're going to have to ask Gaara for all the details. I was being poisoned and unconscious most of the time."

Temari nodded, her mouth closed in a tight-lipped frown. She motioned for the guards to take him up on a stretcher made out of their arms. "Take him back to his room," she said, giving hurried directions before rushing off to go and find out if Gaara was all right.

_She wouldn't be his sister if she wasn't suspicious of me. I've been the cause of all this crap here anyway,_ Naruto thought bitterly, his muscles seizing slightly as the poison ripped though his body.

_After I've healed enough to walk, move, and talk properly, I'm going to leave this place and leave Gaara in peace._

Naruto closed his eyes, finally drifting off into an uneasy sleep as the rocking of the man-made stretcher lulled him. He didn't even feel it when they laid him on his bed and Caius came to administer to him.

He didn't know that a couple of rooms away, Gaara , unintentionally, already knew what he was planning.


	17. Chapter 16

1Gaara's body burned with fever as he was carried towards his chambers. As the poison flowed in his veins and sent stabs of pain shooting through his muscles and his vital organs, Gaara fought to keep from twisting and turning in the guards' arms. He forced himself to go unconscious so he could cope with the pain better.

_I can't believe that Naruto could go through this and he had the full dose,_ Gaara thought in the murky blackness that was his mind. _I am so weak._ And then something happened that both surprised, intrigued, and concerned Gaara. He heard Naruto's voice as clearly in his mind as if Naruto had been standing right next to him.

_...his sister if she wasn't suspicious of me. I've been the cause of all this crap here anyway. After I've healed enough to walk, move, and talk properly, I'm going to leave this place and leave Gaara in peace._

Gaara sat bolt upright in the manmade stretcher, his muscles seizing with the surprise of it all. He kept his face emotionless, but the slight narrowing of his eyes tipped off Caius, who made a note to talk to Gaara later while he administered a jutsu to his tightly strung muscles to relax them. As Gaara lay back down, his body twitching with muscles spasms, he made himself go unconscious again to see if it would happen again.

As Gaara tentatively spread his consciousness and felt out with his mind, another presence touched his mind and he stifled his surprise and instead of recoiling, he reached out more. In his unconsciousness, his arm reached out from his bed, which he had been laid on, and felt around in the air. Caius silently observed this as he treated his kazekage.

Gaara regarded the presence in his mind. It felt like red, gold, and orange and tasted like sun. It felt like the stiff leather of a saddle. Gaara loved all of it and sought to hold it in his mind. But it rejected his authority. Gaara's brow furrowed in concentration and he tried again, keeping his consciousness firm on the presence. He managed to restrain it, but it fought and fought him. He hadn't expected it to fight, but he kept his mental hold firm, and gradually, it stopped struggling and kept calm and it began to explore Gaara's consciousness. Gaara almost lost his grip when it spoke.

_This...this feels like Gaara._

Gaara choked and coughed, his face turning red but as Caius rushed to help his kazekage, the choking went as fast as it came. As Gaara's body relaxed, Caius sat back in a chair by the bedside, staring at a point on the other side of the room, pondering these strange happenings.

Gaara had almost panicked, but he controlled himself and let the presence explore his consciousness. What confused him most was that it had sounded like Naruto! But that wasn't possible. Naruto was how many rooms away! It just was not possible.

--

Naruto explored the presence that held him captive. He'd felt it while he was thinking about leaving and as soon as he'd felt it, it was gone. His body's muscles had spasmed at the moment the presence had touched him but they went back to twitching with the effects of the poison when he relaxed. He waited, waited for that presence to reach out to him. He knew it would, although he didn't know how he knew. He just knew.

And surely as he knew, it came back. It touched the edge of his mind, and then spread its touch. It was inquisitive, but Naruto knew that it didn't want to be. He knew that it didn't want to be seen as curious about anything, wanted to be cool and controlling all the time. And just as Naruto thought of the controlling part of the presence, it tried to seize him. He fought and he knew that it was slightly shocked at this ferocity and he grinned inwardly and on the surface. But then the presence's concentration caught him in an iron grip and no matter how much he struggled, he could not break free.

Physically, Naruto's body twitched and jerked as he tried to break free of the presence, but as he realized that it would not let him go, that it wanted him, he stopped fighting. Instead, he began to explore the presence. It felt like red, green, and black and tasted like the desert. It felt like the sun warmed sandstone. He loved it and didn't want it to go. He gave an inward sigh, and thought, _This..this feels like Gaara._

The presence that held Naruto shook as soon as he had thought and as Naruto stiffened mentally and physically, the presence seemed to relax and flow around him, encompassing his mind in the warmth and security of the desert. Naruto wanted the presence, welcomed it, craved it. In his room, as medics watched, his arms came up, trying to grasp the presence and hold it to himself forever.

--

Gaara finally realized that the presence was Naruto and his heart leaped. His consciousness surged around Naruto's, enfolding it and caressing it and showing Naruto all the love that he had held back. Gaara knew through Naruto's consciousness that he didn't know it was him, so Gaara threw himself at Naruto mentally.

What dawned in Gaara's mind and slightly surprised him, though, was the fact that Naruto was accepting him, willing him to come nearer, longing for him, hungering for him. _But would you accept me in life?_, Gaara thought aloud, and then realized what he'd done, but what he hadn't expected was Naruto's response.

_Come to me in life and I am yours_.

Both Naruto and Gaara's eyes snapped open at the same time, their fevers broken but both exhausted. Naruto's arms reached up towards the sky, searching for that presence that was so like Gaara. Gaara sat bolt upright and sweating before finally sinking back into the many huge red silk feather pillows that crowned his huge bed. As he breathed in and out, trying to slow his quick-beating heart, Caius loomed over him.

Gaara's voice rasped as he spoke. "Caius–" Gaara coughed, then gulped to try and wet his throat, "Caius...I am in need of water." As Caius brought a glass of cool water to Gaara's parched and cracked lips, he looked dead into Gaara's eyes.

"Yes, you are in need of water, but no longer. I am in need of understanding, and I hope not to have to wait much longer for it Kazekage-sama." Caius's ice blue eyes bored into Gaara's emerald green with a cold fire. "We must talk."

Now I know this chapter is short, but I don't care. I know how you guys like long chapters, but I couldn't force myself as a writer to try and put more into this chapter. It just didn't fit, you know? Anyway, I'm working on another chapter for this and the other stories and thanks for all the reviews!


	18. Chapter 17

1Caius sat back, thinking, in his chair. Gaara didn't know what to expect. He'd told him everything. He'd almost withheld the fact that he thought there was now a mental connection between he and Naruto, but he decided against it. Caius had seen many years and was very wise; he'd probably know what it was and what to do about it. As his body fought the losing poison, he twitched less, the pain was down to a dull throbbing, his headache nearly gone.

Curious, he reached out to Naruto's consciousness and felt around. Naruto was asleep, but his body had healed just as much as Gaara's. He could feel Naruto turn over and almost without thinking it, Gaara looked for what Naruto was dreaming about.

It was chaotic, switching around with the different whims and thoughts that Naruto's subconscious was sorting. The night Naruto saw Gaara when he was so angry that he thought he was the devil. Gaara winced at that. He didn't like to think about what he would've looked, but now he did. But Naruto's train of thought changed as suddenly as it had settled.

Gaara felt a touch on his stomach, but he realized what Naruto was remembering. Then a nightmare so torturous entered his head, but he felt a hand on his cheek, caressing him, and the nightmare went away. He was back on the shore of the koi pond, making out with Naruto, but Naruto didn't know it was him. Silently, Gaara thanked the heavens that he didn't, but it moved on. Naruto was limping through the garden, finally stretching his legs despite that one was in a cast, and he felt someone's eyes on him, watching, but he felt peaceful, happy. Safe.

It drifted off to some other inconsequent thought, something about ramen, but Gaara withdrew. He'd seen and felt everything he'd needed to. But before Gaara could try and interpret the feelings Naruto had, Caius interrupted his thoughts with a question.

"You were in his mind again weren't you?"

Gaara turned his head to look at him, then nodded. Caius sighed and sat forward in the chair so that he could better keep Gaara's attention.

"One of your eyes is blue."

Gaara blinked in surprise. He made a motion to sit up, but Caius put up a hand and took a mirror out of a pouch. Obviously he had anticipated what Gaara would want, and Gaara was glad he had him as a counselor as he took the mirror he was offered and looked into it.

It was strange to see an eye that wasn't his staring back at him. No, it was his eye, but not his color. One of his eyes was still dark, forest green, but the other was now the color of the sky that you would see through the gaps of tree branches. Naruto's blue. _So now I not only share a mind with him, but I share an eye. How interesting._ Gaara thought, keeping his thoughts to himself, not wishing to disturb Naruto. Then he saw Caius looking at him expectantly.

"I was thinking that it was interesting that now Naruto and I share more than our original common bond," Gaara said. He knew that Caius did not like his Kazekage to keep secrets from him. Trust was what allowed him to function for this long with so many great leaders of the sand country, and Gaara could be no different. Caius nodded, understanding. The original bond was the fact that Naruto and Gaara each had a demon inside them. It was what made them such good friends. They understood each other's pain.

Gaara and Caius put their heads together. It was time to think, debate, plan. They needed to keep Naruto safe and Gaara's love for him and the fact that even Gaara's own hugely guarded mansion wasn't safe didn't make it exactly easy. They needed to think of a safe place, and it was going to work.

--

Kunais sliced and sharingans hummed as they sailed through the air to come to rest with huge **THOCK!**s into wooden posts that were set up at different distances. None of them missed their mark. Sasuke was breathing hard as he took more out of his pouch and threw them with the force of his rage. Sakura looked on disapprovingly, a frown line creasing her brows, but she didn't say anything. This was the only way he could vent and she wasn't about to stop it.

It had been almost three weeks since Naruto had disappeared and he STILL hadn't been found. They'd had a lead, but dropped it after they checked it out. Apparantly, some guy that had looked like Naruto had walked into this weird gothic store and had bought a bunch clothes and a mask. Sasuke had nearly jumped on the girl that was at the register when she mentioned the mask, but after she told him that he'd gotten 11 piercings, Sasuke left the store disgusted with himself about getting his hopes so high. "Naruto would NEVER get any piercings, let alone that many!" he'd told Sakura as they made their way home.

Sasuke snarled in frustration and threw a sharingan the size of his head at the nearest post, the glossy black metal burying itself halfway into the wood before it stopped. "The only real _important_ news we've gotten was from Gaara a week ago and it was an assassination warning. When is someone going to recognize Naruto? He walks around in a freakin' _ORANGE_ jumpsuit!"

He nearly screamed this at the posts that dotted his compound's courtyard as he threw all that he had left at them. Some of them didn't even make it to their targets. Sasuke was so frustrated that he didn't care where they went, thus, some of them found themselves buried in dirt. Sakura came up beside him and took his hand. The crisis had brought them together in a most unexpected way, but they'd decided to postpone most romantic notions until they found Naruto and brought him safely home.

As he squeezed her hand back, Kakashi exploded out of the ground and landed beside them. They both knew by the look in his eye that he meant business and he only muttered one word. "Naruto." In an instant, they were running flat out to the Hokage's office.

--

Tsunade scanned the missive over and over. It was co-authored, Kankuro's small script and Temari's flowing words spilling over the page. She had received the scroll, expecting it to be from Gaara as it had the Kazekage seal, but her first surprise was to find no evidence of his hand in it at all, when it was opened, but only his siblings'.

It dictated the normal greetings and titles and formalities, but then it got straight to some pretty serious business. She'd rolled it back up after quickly scanning it and then sending Kakashi to get Sasuke and Sakura. She'd needed only to see Naruto's name to know the importance. She decided it was only fair that she read it properly in the presence of the people who had been waiting for news of him for the most time.

When they arrived, Kakashi sat down almost nonchalantly, but Tsunade could see every muscles that he tensed while he waited. Sasuke and Sakura preferred to stand, and she could see almost no evidence of their new relationship. They cared more about Naruto than anything right now, and that included each other. She sighed and tapped the scroll that they all had their eyes on.

"This comes from the sand country," she began, looking only at the missive. "You can see that it's from the kazekage. However, it is not."

She looked up. Kakashi was staring off into the distance and Sasuke and Sakura looked confused. She continued.

"It is not from the kazekage, but from his siblings. Kankuro and Temari send their greetings."

Sasuke began to clench his fists with impatience and Sakura put a hand on his shoulder to calm him without really thinking about it while Kakashi blinked. Tsunade thought she should get to it before any more of her furniture got broken. Sasuke had lost his temper more than once here and she had the bills to confirm it. She took the scroll in her hands and unrolled it. She began to read aloud.

"Greetings honorable Hokage Tsunade, Guardian of Konoha, etc.. We have something that we'd like to share with you. About two and a half weeks ago, Gaara arrived with a critically injured teenager and had a room set up in his mansion stocked with a large supply of medical equipment to heal him. What we didn't realize until a day later was that it was Naruto."

Tsunade didn't get any farther when Sasuke's knuckles cracked, he was clenching his fists so tightly. His teeth were grinding. Sakura finally turned her attention to him rather than the letter and took hold of one of his fists. Sasuke gradually relaxed into her grip and their fingers intertwined. Sakura led him to a chair where he sat down and buried his face in one hand while she stood behind and kept hold of his other. Kakashi didn't react. Tsunade kept her eyes on Sasuke for a moment, but when Sakura nodded her okay, she went on.

"He was put into an induced coma to keep him from harming himself and was mending well when two medics arrived for Naruto's daily checkup. Little did we know that the two medics were really assassins set on killing both Naruto and our brother. Gaara killed one but not before the other slashed his throat. Naruto woke himself from his coma and killed the other one and was able to get help before Gaara died. That was when Gaara sent you the missive, informing you of the possible assassination attempt."

"WHY DIDN'T THEY TELL US?!" Sasuke roared, slamming his fist on Tsunade's desk, causing it to tremble. "We've been looking for Naruto EVERYWHERE!"

Tsunade raised her eyebrow and motioned to the words on the page. "That was about to be answered, but you interrupted me."

Sasuke fell back into his chair, teeth gritted, putting his hand to his face again. Sakura kissed his cheek while Tsunade began reading again.

"We thought that Gaara had informed you that Naruto was staying with us in his last missive. To our great surprise, we found he did not. While Naruto continued to heal as Gaara cared for him, we were asked not to inform you that he was here. We decided to respect his wishes until recently. A day ago, there was another assassination attempt that nearly killed the both of them, but thanks to Gaara's quick thinking, both of their lives have been spared."

"We find, however, that we could not keep this from you any longer. We have written this in the hopes that you would know why they are not only trying to kill Gaara, but Naruto as well. We only recently found out that you have been looking for Naruto. Do what you must, but we must keep our brother safe. We hope this missive finds you well."

Tsunade looked up from the scroll, rolling it up as she said, "Sasuke? Sakura?"

Sasuke stood up, a determined look on his face while Sakura came to stand beside him, her face just as set.

"Do you even have to ask?" Sasuke said sarcastically, but Tsunade could tell that he was itching to go restock his empty pouch and be off as soon as possible. Tsunade turned to Kakashi.

"Kakashi, I will need you to stick around here as part of my guard. The assassination warning seems to be true. Sasuke, Sakura, you will pack as needed and head off as soon as possible for the sand country. It will take you about a week to get there."

_And that's if you go as fast as I think you will, Sasuke,_ she thought, amused temporarily by the fact that she knew that Sasuke wouldn't slow down for the world and Sakura wouldn't hesitate to follow.

As Sasuke and Sakura nearly broke down the door trying to get out, Tsunade strode over to the window and looked out on Konoha. As Kakashi came over to join her, Tsunade spoke.

"I wonder who they'll find," Tsunade said, her eyes still on the thriving village. She watched the people below going about their daily business, not aware their Hokage was watching over them.

"Tsunade?" Kakashi asked, not knowing what she meant.

Tsunade smiled, and looked away, turning to look Kakashi in the eye.

"I wonder..." she said, her smile turning to a frown as she saw Sasuke and Sakura dashing at lightspeed over the rooftops out of the corner of her eye. "I wonder if who they find will be their friend or a stranger."

I'm forcing myself to write up a storm, and look where it's getting me! Yay! Chapters! Anyway, reviews are much appreciated. Hope you guys enjoyed this bit in the _The Sand Absorbs the Blood and Tears_ story and I hope to write a lot more. Kudos!


	19. Chapter 18

1Naruto and Gaara's rooms were moved into a private wing of the mansion deep inside the house where there were no windows and very few points of entry into the building. Staying at opposite ends of a hallway, the two teenagers somehow still found little time to see and talk to each other during the day. The rooms between the two boys' rooms had been converted to a temporary headquarters so Gaara could still run the country in relative safety and, consequently, was kept busy with meetings late into the night. Naruto had little to do other than sleep, eat, have his still-healing leg examined, and figure out different ways to wear the wide variety of clothing and jewelry he had been provided with. This wasn't very hard, but also grew very tedious after a while. He began roaming the corridors outside his room and fidgeting with his multiple piercings as he strode around just for something to do.

The fact that Naruto played with his piercings actually entertained Gaara to the point that he made a game of guessing what piercing Naruto would be messing with the next time he saw him: his eyebrow, his nose, his tongue, his lip, or one of his many ear piercings. Normally, Gaara would guess the correct one because he would use the secret connection with Naruto to interpret his feelings moments before Gaara knew he would come into sight, but occasionally he would get it wrong and Naruto would be messing with another piercing or an article of clothing or jewelry he wasn't wearing on his face.

Gaara, when he'd had a moment, had told Naruto it was probably best not to refer to Naruto by his name anymore.

"Well, why not?" Naruto had demanded, fingering one of the 5 piercings on the edge of his right ear like he did when he was agitated.

"Well, _little fox_, the person who is trying to kill you along with me does not know where either of us are at the moment as long as security stays tight. An unfortunate slip of the tongue, however, would spell just more disaster. Is there any code name you would like to be called during your stay here?"

Gaara left the question open on how long Naruto wanted to stay. He knew that Naruto would most likely return to the village of Konoha, but he also knew it would take time and would probably spook Naruto if there was a set date for his return.

"Ummm...," Naruto thought, switching from messing with his right ear to chewing on his tongue piercing, "I'm not quite sure."

"Think about it," Gaara said as the counselors that were standing nearby began to get restless. "After you've had some time, come to my room sometime and leave the name with the guard or a note on my desk."

As Gaara walked away, going to an appointment arranged with the granaries to check their status, he was reasonably sure that it would take Naruto a while to come up with a name, knowing the immature teenager of his earlier years. What he did not expect, however, was to walk into his room very late at night and find Naruto curled up in his blankets, asleep and still fully dressed in what he'd been wearing earlier.

Gaara's eyes temporarily widened, but he calmly walked over and shook Naruto's shoulder enough to wake him. Naruto's closed eyes opened a sliver before the ebony-haired youth tried to sit up, his hair tousled and his body twisted in the covers, and yawned. Gaara sat himself in the desk chair across from the bed and leaned back, easing into it as if it were a comfortable armchair. Naruto, blinking owlishly as his eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, finally noticed Gaara's unblinking dual-tone stare and, it would've been Gaara's imagination had he not felt it through the connection, blushed. All Gaara did was raise an eyebrow in return. Naruto fussed a little with the covers before clearing his throat and speaking in a voice husky with sleep.

"I thought of a name."

Gaara's eyebrow lowered but he continued to stare. Naruto blushed more furiously.

"It actually didn't take long. I found out that walking helps me think."

_I'd have to disagree, knowing that chewing on your tongue ring does_, Gaara mused to himself, but brought himself back from his thoughts enough to catch the rest of what Naruto was saying at the same time.

"Well, anyway, I was walking and I found a library, so I thought, well, why not go in. I was thinking it could give me ideas on what a good name would be."

_That's surprising. Never pinned you as the book type, __**little fox**_, Gaara thought.

"So, well, um...I was looking through the shelves, you know, at the different scrolls and books in there, and...I-I found a name."

_Stuttering? This is interesting_.

"Do you want to hear it?" Naruto asked, his eyes full of a strange mixture of fear and embarrassment.

"Of course I do," Gaara's voice a low, soothing murmur that seemed to rid Naruto of his fear if not his embarrassment.

"Well, the name I picked out. Yeah, it's gonna sound really corny, but, um..."

Gaara was patient. He could wait for almost anything when it came to Naruto.

"Well, I want to be called Dark Angel."

Gaara's eyes widened a little in surprised, the slight amazement in their mismatched gaze throwing Naruto off and making him look down while he began to fidget with his eyebrow piercing, which Gaara knew he did when he was really embarrassed about something.

"Nevermind, I can come up with a better one. I'll look through the library again and find something different that's not so–"

Gaara interrupted him before he could finish his sentence. "I think the name is perfect," his gaze cool and approving, reassuring Naruto. "I'll tell Permius immediately so he can take it to the council leaders and orders can be sent to all the guards."

When Gaara returned, he noticed that Naruto had barely moved in his short absence, the only change being Naruto had stopped messing with his piercings. Gaara resumed his seat and looked back at Naruto, their gazes unfaltering. It was then that Gaara noticed that behind the iridescent green contacts that he constantly wore now, one of Naruto's eyes was slightly darker than the other.

"Naruto, did one of your eyes change color?"

Naruto nodded absentmindedly, chewing on his tongue piercing.

A thought occurred to Gaara, so he asked, "Naruto, why are you in my room this late?"

Naruto began to twist his eyebrow stud while he left off chewing and answered, "I was here a lot earlier because I thought you'd be done, but you weren't. I thought I'd wait for you, so I sat on the bed to wait up for you, but as you can tell," he said, gesturing to the red silk covers he still hadn't managed to disentangle himself from, "I failed miserably."

Gaara nodded in understanding, smothering the small joy he was feeling from finally being able to spend a little time with Naruto with the added bonus of having him in his bed when Naruto suddenly blurted out, "You're my guardian angel, aren't you?"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sasuke stocked up on sharingan, kunais, a scroll, food, everything he needed for the long journey ahead. _Of course, it would only be long to someone who was traveling on the road on foot. I, however, will do no such thing_. He planned on taking a straight course through the forest, rather than taking the road out, and making a quick pass through the borders of the wave country before taking the road through the desert to the sand country's capital.

Sakura, meeting him where Naruto had first disappeared from, was already packed and prepared by the time he got there. She had even showered and changed into clothes that would hinder her movements less. He could smell her cherry blossom shampoo from where he was. He had to admit, he'd chosen well. _Who said girls are always late? She was here BEFORE me AND she got more done. Efficiency to the utmost. Well done, Sakura_.

Shaking his head, he stopped silently congratulating her and made his way over to her, noticing that she was already almost halfway to him by that time. He smiled ruefully, not being able to hide from her. She smiled back, but it cracked a little and Sasuke's brow furrowed.

In answer to his unspoken question, she sighed and said, "I'm just worried about Naruto. It said he was critically injured and that there has been two assassination attempts on his life."

Sasuke took her into his arms, resting her head on his shoulder and stroking her shining hair. "There's nothing to worry about Sakura. He was critically injured two and a half weeks ago, and with the kyuubi inside him, he's probably up and running already."

"But the assassina–"

"Sakura, he's alive. Why are you so worried? You're normally not like this."

"Because I'm scared that he won't be the same after all that stuff has happened to him. Sasuke, he's been nearly killed more times than I can count or care to remember!"

He smiled and ruffled her hair before stepping away from her and grabbing his supplies, which earned a scowl from her as she tried to rearrange the semi-dry hair. As he shouldered his pack and she did the same, he leaped onto a nearby tree branch before turning to her, now standing next to him on the branch, before he answered.

"Because, Sakura, Naruto couldn't change for the world."


	20. Chapter 19

1Encountering little trouble from the forest's inhabitants, Sakura and Sasuke made good time and got a little ahead of schedule before making camp in the crown of a huge tree. With the branches sprouting from its edges of the relatively flat platform providing a natural shield from intruding eyes on the ground and in nearby trees, it was an ideal spot to camp and obviously had been used before, quite evident from old scorch marks in the center. While Sasuke set a few traps around the tree just in case any enemy ninja ventured into Konoha's woods, Sakura started a fire and set up camp. By the time Sasuke was back, she was stretched out on her bedroll and eating while she surveyed a map on her knees.

Without looking up, she said, "I think we're a little over a third of the way there. I looked for a landmark or two while you were gone and I think we're here." She pointed at a spot on the map just a little over a third of the way through the forest going away from Konoha.

Nodding his assent, Sasuke sat on the other side of the fire and pulled out his own food before settling on his bedroll and starting his dinner. He motioned at her bedroll, indicating he was to take the first watch. While she rested, he kept his senses alert and watched her face relaxed in sleep, occasionally making the rounds to make sure his traps were still poised and ready and investigating any noise he didn't judge to be just the wind or the forest.

At midnight, he and Sakura switched turns for the watch, and while Sasuke slept, Sakura eagerly waited for the dawn and the chance to get closer to Naruto.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

At about the same time that Sasuke and Sakura were changing turns keeping watch, Gaara sat rigid in his chair, trying to make it appear like he wasn't. Naruto's question had caught him off guard. He struggled to control himself while he kept his gaze cool and leveled a question of his own.

"What makes you think that?"

Naruto gestured to the red silk he was tangled in. "No nightmares."

Gaara's brow furrowed in obvious skepticism and Naruto scrambled to explain himself. "I've been having nightmares, Gaara, really bad ones. You know that, but after the Exchange, they only got worse. When I came in to wait up for you, I sat on the bed 'cuz it was the most comfortable and I fell asleep on accident, but it just felt so comforting. And when you woke me up, your touch, it felt like the other times when I was having nightmares. And when I was talking to you, I realized, I didn't have any nightmares while I was sleeping. The fact that you've touched the sheets, the blanket, and I was wrapped up in them was probably the reason why. So are you, Gaara? Are you my guardian angel?"

Gaara tried to swallow to wet his parched throat, but it was a dry attempt. He stood and began pacing around the room, Naruto's slightly mismatched eyes never leaving Gaara's own.

Keeping his voice even and detached, Gaara said, "And what if I was your guardian angel? What would that mean?"

Naruto nearly broke his neck trying to get out of the blankets and up off the bed, but he finally managed it and marched over to Gaara, taking one of his hands and stopping him cold in his tracks.

"It would mean EVERYTHING," Naruto said, his voice small and timid. When Gaara turned to him, Naruto was looking back at him, a blush flushing his pale face under the black curtain that was Naruto's hair. Gaara barely dared to hope, but as Naruto went on, his heart only grew lighter and lighter.

"I mean, I guess over the last few weeks I've been sorta...I dunno how to say this, liking you? I know that it's weird...but you've saved my life more than once and we've been friends for a long time, and I feel like I did with Sakura and Hinata, but it's, uh...different?"

Gaara could hardly stand it. The hesitancy in Naruto's voice was absolutely adorable, but he knew if he voiced anything while Naruto tried to explain to himself his own feelings, he would shy away from Gaara. Gaara could not afford to lose this opportunity.

"...If you're the thing that takes away my pain, my suffering, I want to be with you forever. The thing is, I don't know how you feel. I'm so confused...I can't figure out what my heart is trying to tell me. I don't even know if this is right. I'm just so confused..."

Naruto dropped Gaara's hand, taking a step back and digging the heels of his palms into his eyes as if he was attempting to rub out the confusion along with the last vestiges of sleep from them. As silently as possible, Gaara closed the distance between them and, grasping Naruto's wrists and gently prizing them apart, he locked his lips with Naruto's.

Naruto did not struggle or try to break away, but he did not respond either. Gaara could feel Naruto being torn on the inside between confusion, guilt, need, disgust, pleasure, through their connection. But eventually, curiosity, Naruto's prevailing character trait, and a strange sense of daring overcame the maelstrom of emotion and triggered a reaction to Gaara's lips on his own.

He received the kiss, drank it in. Eager, both teens thrust their tongues into the other's mouth, Gaara's experience and Naruto's tongue piercing making the interaction more interesting for both of them. They went on like that, neither knew for how long, but the explosion of sensation that was enhanced through the connection that had roared to life as they connected and Naruto stumbled away, eyes wide and his arm across his mouth.

Gaara stood there, panting, his arms limp at his sides. They'd continued to clasp Naruto's wrists more out of passion than restraint and when Naruto had finally broken the kiss, he found that without Naruto to hold, they felt useless. He kept his eyes averted, made sure, funny as it sounded, that he looked as harmless as possible, but as he barely breathed, kept as still as possible, all Naruto could do was stare at him.

He couldn't take it anymore and crossed the floor suddenly, angrily throwing himself in the desk chair he'd vacated what felt like forever ago, cradling his head in one hand while the other rested on the armrest clenched, his back to Naruto. He was sure he'd overstepped his bounds, ruined his chance. Naruto would go back to Konoha, disgusted with his friend and he would never see Naruto again. He silently cursed himself for his stupidity, his arrogance, his confidence that it would be okay, his inept ability to show his feelings properly, to capture everything that had been tormenting him for the last 3 weeks. His teeth ground audibly in his head.

And then the slightest touch on his shoulder startled him, made him jump and his face go white with shock. Naruto, just as startled, jerked his hand back, but tentatively, he again rested his hand on Gaara's shoulder. Gaara could hardly believe it, didn't want to move. An absurd desire to pinch himself came over him to make sure he was awake, but he shrugged it off, mentally, and slowly stood and turned to face Naruto, whose expression was of grim determination.

Making sure to keep eye contact, Naruto carefully raised his hands to curl in the hair on either side of Gaara's face. Gaara could sense them trembling and feel Naruto fight to keep them steady through the connection. _Their_ connection. Naruto cautiously leaned forward, and making sure Gaara was watching his every move, closed his eyes and their lips connected again.

Gaara closed his eyes to revel in the kiss as well. It was sweet, rather than hot and passionate like the last one. Gaara's hands, of their own accord, grasped Naruto's shoulders and pulled him closer, but gently.

Eternity seemed to pass in the space of a minute.

When they finally parted, neither let the other go. Foreheads together, struggling to keep their ragged breathing together, they stood there.

Eternity passed by them again.

As Gaara extinguished the lights and crawled into bed, not even bothering to change out of his kazekage robes, he felt a comforting warmth crawl in next to him and curl against him, Naruto's head lying in the hollow between his head and shoulder. As they fell asleep in each other's arms, both fell into a dreamless sleep. No nightmare could intrude on their love.

Apologies for not updating sooner. I've really been busy (school and college apps ya know). I hope you really enjoy these two new chapters and kudos!


	21. Chapter 20

1As the day dawned, Sakura roused Sasuke and they left within a few minutes, deactivating all the traps they had set up and leaving barely any trace of their stay. As the day progressed they made good time, until lunch. They encountered a Konoha patrol fighting with a group of rogues and were attacked before anybody realized who they were. After helping the patrol drive off the bandits, the leader apologized to them and time was taken to bandage the minor wounds sustained during the battle.

In the end, Sakura and Sasuke's delay with the fight ended up taken what little lead in their travel plans they had gained. This time taking shelter in the roots of a great tree, Sakura once again pinpointed their position, they weren't behind schedule, and insisted on taking the first watch. The night was peaceful, periodically interrupted with the hoot of an owl or the howl of a creature of the night somewhere in the distance. Sasuke perched in the branches of the tree Sakura was sleeping under and felt the breeze across his skin. Naruto hadn't given up on him. Sasuke was going to return the favor, no matter what.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next few days were filled with memories that Gaara never wanted to forget. Waking up the next morning with the person he'd longed for for so long in his arms and the nightmares he'd experienced every night since his childhood gone, the world seemed right. Even when he opened his eyes to find Caius standing over him with a raised eyebrow did nothing to shake his happiness. Gently disentangling himself from Naruto's lanky form, he tucked the gothic boy back into the red silk sheets and without a word, straightened his robes and walked out of the room, turning around only when he reached the hallway just in time to see Caius closing the door quietly behind them.

"Honorable Kazekage-sama, why is–"

"He came to me, Caius. He knows now of the connection and how I feel and he does not fear it or me. We did nothing but sleep during the night."

Caius' eyebrow managed to somehow raise itself higher. "And the nightmares?"

"There were none. Dark Angel's have also left him."

Caius nodded, averting his eyes as he thought and following Gaara as they began to walk down the hallway to the first of their daily appointments. While his counselor thought, Gaara manipulated some sand into the form of a rose on his desk for Naruto to find when he woke up. He wanted to make sure that he didn't think that Gaara had played on his confusions the night before.

"So you are...together, now?"

Gaara stopped and turned to Caius, making sure to look into his icy eyes with his own forest and sky ones. "I have no idea. Dark Angel is still emotionally fragile and how I proceed will depend on how he holds up. And while I'm thinking about it, I think we should use a code name for me as well. I like the sound of Guardian Angel. It suitably replaces my title and rank and still maintains enough anonymity for one to use in casual conversation. Please make sure that everyone knows and distribute the new orders accordingly. That will be all, Caius."

Bowing his head slightly in acknowledgment, Caius continued down the hall at an even pace while Gaara stopped and regained his temporarily lost composure. Emotion was new to him and he had to learn to control it. If he didn't find a balance, he could begin to lose the respect and trust of his staff. He could not let that happen. If those he was trying to lead weren't confident in his judgment or ability to keep a level head, he could lose his position. He couldn't let this get too out of hand. Too much was at stake.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sakura and Sasuke had made good progress. A close call when they passed through the edges of the wave country was the most exciting part of their journey thus far, but they'd successfully avoided any direct confrontation with the ninja there.

Because of the heat during the day in the desert of the sand country, most travelers made their way during the hours when the sun hid its face and stayed in large groups to prevent bandits from attacking them. The mission to retrieve Naruto required the utmost haste in both Sasuke and Sakura's minds, so to keep from being slowed down by defensive travelers who would ask questions, they now sped across the dunes on either side of the road in the dead of night, choosing to stay off the well-beaten path in favor of secrecy.

As the sun kissed the horizon with its light, Sakura stopped and let out a low whistle. She listened for Sasuke's answering signal. She didn't have to wait long. The call of a desert bird rent the air and as she scanned the other side of the road, saw Sasuke launch himself high over the path from his side, turn a few somersaults, and land next to her with barely a shift in the sand. They looked around to make sure no one saw them before trekking a bit farther into the desert next to the road.

While Sasuke kept watch, Sakura summoned water from deep beneath the earth using a jutsu that Tsunade had taught her. Aiming the water at a particularly large hill of sand, she soaked the sand until the entire dune was completely wet through. Now it was her turn to stand watch as the sun peeked over the distant mountains. Sasuke, using Kakashi's earth technique, dug and hollowed out the dune to create a suitable shelter for them during the day, virtually indistinguishable from the other dunes throughout the desert.

As they entered the cool space, Sasuke scooped a shallow bowl out of the sand in the floor and Sakura quickly deposited the extra water within it, creating a small pool of fresh water. The normal camping routine began again. Sakura pinpointed their location while Sasuke prepared the food and bedrolls.

"We're only about 70 miles from the capital," Sakura said, rolling up the map and putting away the compass.

"How do you know without any real landmarks?" Sasuke asked, rummaging around in a pouch for a sharingan.

"The road is distinct enough in its path and shape that it's easy to track a location. It wasn't hard to figure out."

As Sakura stood up, she turned to find herself looking into Sasuke's dark brooding eyes. Grasping her shoulders, he kissed her, keeping her firmly in place for a minute before breaking it and holding her to him. Sakura placed her hands on his chest and nestled her head into his shoulder. It was a moment both would treasure til they reached the capital.

First update in months. Now that school's out, I've graduated (yay me!), and I'm sitting in my new college dorm, I can work on this a lot more. No promises though. Look for updates but don't count on them being consistent. I got classes ya'know.


	22. Chapter 21

Naruto awoke contented. He was so warm and comfortable, the huge bed easily dwarfing his wiry frame, the pillows soft, the silk sheets smooth against his skin... He sat bolt upright, confused. _Where am I?_ He looked around and slowly, as the fog of sleep cleared, he realized he was in Gaara's room. In his bed. With no Gaara in sight.

_Shit, did I do something wrong?_ Naruto rubbed his eyes, trying to erase the last few cobwebs of sleep that lingered. _Last night...last night was weird. And good. Well, awesome. Amazing._ He began to look around. What was he supposed to do now? Gaara was gone. That made him feel kind of bad until he noticed the sand rose with a steaming bowl of ramen sitting next to it. It was only then that he realized he was hungry as his stomach gave a rumble of complaint.

It took him a while to untangle his many leashes from the sheets and he was glad no one was around when he realized that his nose ring had snagged on a loose thread. When he finally made it off the bed, he took a deep breath and dove into the ramen dish. It was different from how they prepared back ho–...well, it was made using the sand country's style. He liked it better.

After he licked the edges of the bowl, he set it down next to the sand rose, which still rigidly held its shape. Naruto wanted to touch it, but he was afraid it'd crumble.

_Go ahead, pick it up. It will take whatever shape you'd like._

Naruto nearly jumped out of his skin. He looked around to make sure he was alone before realizing that the voice was in his head.

_Gaara? Is that you? Or am I just going crazy?_

He felt his consciousness gently enfolded in the desert that he'd come to love. _Yes, my little fox, it is me. You're still very much sane. I apologize for leaving you without a word. I have duties on a national level that take precedence over a personal relationship._

_I know, Gaara, don't worry about me. I know you've got more important things to do. Go have your meetings and stuff. I'll just see you when I can._

He picked up the rose, wondering at the sand that seemed to glisten in the light. He held it carefully in his hands, despite what Gaara had said. It was a thing of beauty. The leaves were intricately carved to look realistic and when Naruto took time to look at the rose bud itself he realized the sand broke the norm and was red. Before he even had time to form a coherent question in his mind Gaara broke into his thoughts.

_It is the sand that mixed with your blood that fateful night._

He didn't quite know how to react to this and so he studied the rose a while more before he felt Gaara occupied with the first of his meetings. He sank back down onto the bed and stared at the rose. Why would Gaara keep the bloody sand? What did it mean?

_Oh, my little fox, I only keep the sand to remind me to never let you get hurt again. I apologize if I am being too forward or intrusive in looking into your thoughts but I cannot allow you to be harmed ever again. You mean too much to me. I will leave you to your own thoughts now._

Naruto had to think. He mentally commanded the sand to form into a ball with the bloody sand on the inside where he couldn't see it. After it was done transforming, he put it in one of his pockets before going to his own room to change. He needed to wear something different.

Now draped in black with blue accents, he was feeling it today he didn't know why, he decided to walk around and try to clear his thoughts. He went back to his roaming around the limited wing of the mansion, spending most of his time in the spacious library, distracting himself however he could. He was in the middle of perusing a novel written by a previous kazekage when he caught some of Gaara's drifting thoughts. Naruto realized he must be between meetings or taking a break to have some lunch because he wasn't at all focused on anything close to running a country.

_...ing too fast?...ant him closer...oo much to ask...ouldn't do it...why would he want to move in with me?_

Naruto carefully kept his thoughts under control but it was really hard. He focused on the page he'd stopped on, waiting until he'd calmed himself enough to think clearly. Much as he didn't want to see the irony in this, he had to quirk a smile at the idea that he was becoming more like Gaara. But when he came back to the matter at hand, his smile disappeared.

He mused over it a while, wondered what it'd be like, if he could do it or not, would it be good, what if he said no. Anyone walking into the library then would've thought Naruto was a sculpture, he was so still. He stayed frozen like that for what seemed like forever, but he eventually came to a conclusion and, marking his book and putting it into one of his pockets, he left the library.

He joined Gaara for dinner despite the inability to really talk to him. Even while eating Gaara was surrounded by advisors asking questions and providing papers he needed to sign. Avoiding eye contact for most of the meal, Naruto finished his food and left, leaving Gaara with an uncomfortable sinking feeling. He felt their connection, trying to discern the meaning behind Naruto's behavior, but Naruto kept his sunshine aura completely emotionless.

Later that night when he walked into his room, Naruto was nowhere to be seen. As Gaara sat down on the edge of the bed and smelled the mix of cologne and metal, he felt despair and sadness well up inside him. _I was too fast, just too much at once. I've driven him away._

Resigned to the fact that he'd lost his chance, he got up and began unbuttoning his kazekage robes. As he took off the top, exposing his well-muscled chest, he spied a book on the desk that wasn't there before. What made his heart jump was the sand figure sitting atop of it. He crossed the room to view it better, the skirts of the robe whispering across the hardwood floor, and as he bent down to pick it up and look at it, he couldn't help but marvel at the detail with which Naruto had created it despite his disappointment that they hadn't worked out.

It was a little nine-tailed fox, but unlike the monster that was trapped inside Naruto and the small piece that was still within Gaara, it was gentle looking. Formed in a sitting position with its tails curled around its side, it looked more like it was watching over the room rather than getting ready to tear it apart. Its expression was wise and protective and when Gaara took the time to examine each curling tail he realized that only the tails were made with the red sand.

When he was done examining the workmanship, he set it back down on the desk and picked up the book. It was small and black and on the cover was simply written in silver _The Guardian of the Night_. Jutting out of it was a piece of paper and Gaara opened it to the page it marked and began to read.

"_...It padded softly through the grass, the moon shining through the leaves creating intricate patterns across its back. The Guardian was on the prowl again and he would not rest that night until his woods were safe. His senses heightened, his eye ever watchful, he emerged into a clearing, a rare sight to behold._

_Black from tip to tail with teeth gleaming white, the huge fox could easily be mistakenly for a large wolf._ _If it weren't for the forest green of his eyes, the silver breath that crystalized on the night air_, _the Guardian would be indistinguishable from the darkness._ _Completely silent, he scented the slight breeze. He could smell the coming autumn, the bitter frost that would follow after, and then the–"_

The door slamming startled him, making him lose his place on the page. He swiftly marked the page before throwing the book on the desk and spinning around, his defenses on high alert. He turned just in time to see Naruto shutting a drawer in the large dresser and setting a box on top of it. Seeing Naruto threw him off, caught him off guard.

He froze.

He struggled to form words, to get them out, but how could he? He'd thought Naruto had rejected him but here he was, in his room, slowly walking towards him, unable to tear his eyes from Naruto's dual-tone stare.

He was finally able to work his vocal cords enough to croak out a few words. "N-Narutoཀ You're hereཀ But I thought–"

Naruto was in front of him, his finger on Gaara's lips.

Gaara shut up, his eyes wide, his back against the desk, defenseless.

Naruto ran a hand down Gaara's bare, exposed chest while taking Gaara's chin in his other hand and tilting it towards his face where he could reach Gaara's lips with his own.

Gaara couldn't move, couldn't think. He stood there, dumbfounded, lost in the kiss, the innocence. And then the hand wandering across his chest circled around his waist to his back and suddenly jerked Gaara closer, pressing he and Naruto together. Naruto's lips went from gentle pressure to a fierce desire.

His instincts kicked in. His arms, which were so hesitantly placed on the desk behind him only a moment before, were suddenly around Naruto, constricting him with barely withheld passion. His hands found the bottom of Naruto's shirt and it came off, being careful not to catch it on any of his beloved's piercings.

They fell to the bed, their bodies connected. And the moon rose.

You guys must be so proud of meཀ Getting 2 chapters done within a week or two of each other rather than monthsཀ Hope you liked it and more to come soon.


	23. Chapter 22

Under the same moon, Sasuke and Sakura collapsed their temporary shelter and continued on their way, keeping out of sight of the road and its travelers while staying parallel to its winding path. They traveled swiftly, pausing at midnight for a little relief and a report on their progress. While Sasuke sipped some water, Sakura pinpointed their location.

"We're only a few hours from the capital. If we don't stop to rest when the sun rises, we should be able to make it around noon. Do you think we should risk it?"

Sasuke handed the canteen to Sakura and weighed the pros and cons. Sakura knew what Sasuke was going to say even before she'd finished her sentence. When she saw the conclusion form in his eyes, she packed the water and gave him a quick kiss, whispering, "Let's get our friend back," before jumping back across the road.

They ran at breakneck speed, racing the sun to the capital.

* * *

Their breathing had finally evened out now. Skin wasn't so flushed. Nerves didn't tingle as much.

It was the best night of Gaara's life. He didn't know quite how to put into words how he felt. Content? Excited? Satisfied? All of them couldn't express the feeling of well-being, of pure happiness that permeated his entire body. And the warmth he held in his arms. Finally skin on skin with the person he'd loved for so long unrequited. He felt he'd won a hard-fought war after so many lost battles. He felt the feelings of safety and love that Naruto dreamed about at his side and it only increased his love for the gold turned obsidian boy drooling peacefully on the pillow next to him.

However, he knew he had his duties to attend to. No matter how well things went with Naruto, no matter how happy one night made him, he couldn't afford to neglect his country. As he dressed in his kazekage robes, his mind reluctantly tucked away the memory of his time together with Naruto and focused once again on how to keep the wave country in check at its border and which villages required the most aid and protection.

As he crossed the floor to the door, he heard a rustling behind him and a low, "Gaara?..." As he turned to look, the list of villages vanished from his mind as the image of Naruto with bed head, wrapped up in red silk took up his vision.

"Gaara?...What time is it?...Where are you going?"

He had a hard time restraining himself from going back to the bed but somehow he found the strength to stand still and answer Naruto's questions. "It's still very early in the morning. I'm going to the first of my meetings. I will see you at lunch, of course. Take care of yourself, _little fox_."

He swept from the room without a backward glance, knowing Naruto would be fine without him.

Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Naruto fell back on the pillows and gave a long stretch, popping some of his joints. He felt like going back to sleep, settling back into the bed that he and Gaara had made love on only a few hours before, but he knew better.

Groaning, he heaved himself from the mattress and gathered the clothes that were scattered around the room. Mumbling about having to get up, he threw them into the box he'd placed on the dresser the night before and began opening the drawers, searching for a new outfit to wear. He'd moved all his things in yesterday while Gaara was occupied with his duties but, unfortunately, before Naruto could explain what he'd done, Gaara had returned to his room and taken his shirt off. He hadn't thought about that in his plan and he certainly hadn't expected his feelings to take over and for what happened last night to happen, but he was glad it did. He felt so good, right even. He couldn't wait to tell Gaara that he'd moved into his room, but first, he needed clean clothes, and as he examined his reflection in the mirror, another dye job on his hair.

Feeling refreshed and confident, he strolled down the hallway towards the library, his hair a fresh, glossy black and his clothes pure black with silver metal sewn into them: grommets, spikes, pyramid studs. He felt like a piece of the night sky. People averted their eyes whenever theirs connected with Naruto's forest green gaze. He'd taken to wearing his contacts again rather than walk around with his eyes different colors like Gaara, who couldn't avoid it.

Entering the quiet sanctuary that the shelves of books and scrolls offered, he breathed a deep sigh of relief and contentment. He always felt there was a level of animosity whenever he walked the halls, but he believed it was mostly because he'd brought danger to their kazekage. But eventually he figured that they were just naturally afraid of him because of the fox demon aura he always carried, but he'd learned to live with that.

Shaking off the feelings of resentment and loneliness, he made sure to remember that Gaara had accepted him, even loved him, and as he reached out with his consciousness to feel the warm desert that was Gaara's soul, he felt it surround and protect him with love and calm. He breathed another happy sigh and began perusing the shelves in search of a new story to lose himself in.

_...Romance? No...Poetry? Nah, too flowery right now...Science fiction?.............Action..........Adventure..........blah blah blah........................._

He paused at a shelf of gothic novels. Looking through them, he became preoccupied with one with a bloody black rose on the front. He sat down and began to read in one of the armchairs, but he felt like relaxing, becoming engrossed in the words on the pages, and it wasn't doing for him in the armchair. He switched from standing, sitting on the floor against the wall, even sitting in different positions in the armchair until he couldn't stand it anymore. He marked his place and shut the book, set on finding a comfortable place to continue his mental journey.

He prowled the halls until he arrived at the huge main courtyard that stood at the center of the private wing. A huge rectangular pond was sunk into the middle of the floor, overflowing with the plant and animal life of the desert oasis's. Scattered around the edges of the water were couches, and as Naruto reclined onto the one couch that could see down the huge main hallway that he'd just come down, he felt the tension in his body disappear. He settled himself onto the cushions as the sun drew high into the sky.

* * *

Sakura and Sasuke pounded across the sand, the capital in sight. Despite their eagerness, their senses were on high alert and as they crossed the invisible line that defined the border of the city's outskirts, they instinctively spun back to back in a defensive stance as the sand ninja materialized, surrounding them.

"Konoha? What business do genin of the leaf village have here in the capital?" one of them shouted, the circle shifting constantly in an effort to keep Sasuke and Sakura unable to attack.

"We were sent here on errand from the honorable hokage Godaime Tsunade. We have come here on personal invitation from Kankuro and Temari. This letter confirms everything I have just told you," Sasuke shouted back, slowly pulling out a scroll tucked into his vest and throwing it to the shifting sand ninjas.

Examining the official seal and the hokage's handwriting, the guards ceased their attack maneuver. Soon after, Temari appeared.

"So Tsunade sent you two? Figured as much, seeing as how you're Naruto's best friends or whatever."

Sasuke and Sakura raised their eyebrows and looked at each other before turning back to face Temari. Sasuke found his voice before Sakura.

"So Naruto IS here? Seriously here?"

"Yes," Temari said, surprised by their reactions. "He's been here for months. Didn't you know?" Their reactions said otherwise and when Temari realized this, her mouth set in a determined line. "Well, let's go you two, we've got a bit of ground to cover before we get to the center of the city."

Keeping silent and speedy, they leaped across the rooftops, covering ground quickly and arriving at the palace in record time, but instead of entering through the main door, they ended up dropping through the skylight in the main hall. All Temari offered as an explanation was a mumbled, "For security purposes," before beginning to lead them through the many hallways.

"Because of the attempts on both Gaara and Naruto's lives–"

"There were attempts on Na–," began Sasuke, but Sakura lay a restraining hand on his arm and he held his tongue.

"...as I was saying, because of the attempts on their lives they've been moved towards an inner wing of the palace for maximized security. Now, I'm not sure the reasons and motives behind Naruto's apparent avoidance of you and his homeland or Gaara's for keeping his location from you, but there certainly have been a few changes as a result of Naruto's arrival here, as you may imagine. Now I'm not exactly sure where either of them are but..."

Temari trailed off midsentence and stopped dead in her tracks, Sasuke and Sakura stopping abruptly behind her and craning their necks to see what surprised her. What they saw left them speechless as well.

They saw a gothic boy, clothed all in black and silver metal, his face glistening with the piercings that covered it, lying on a couch across the room, a book held loosely in one hand. The other hand was cradling Gaara's face to his like a wine chalice, their lips connected like he was drinking from them. Noticing the sudden hush that came from Temari's silence, the black-haired youth turned to look at them with forest green eyes, which widened as he recognized the recently arrived company. His body tensed, the book lying forgotten on the ground next to him. His defensive behavior tipped Gaara off, adding his gaze in the same general direction as Naruto's, revealing the change in his eyes and their colors. Before anyone else could say another word, Naruto disappeared in a cloud of smoke, the couch left empty where he sat moments before.

Nothing compared, however, to the expressions on Sasuke and Sakura's faces. Sasuke had frozen in place, refusing to believe what he'd seen. All the color had drained from Sakura's face and her hands were locked onto Sasuke's arms, struggling to keep her standing.

_I wonder if who they find will be their friend or a stranger._

So I think I knocked this chapter out of the park, but I can't wait to see what you guys think of what I've written. I love nothing more than when you write reviews so write lots of them! Hopefully more to come soon. Enjoy all. :]


	24. Chapter 23

Naruto, appeared in a nearby corridor breathing so hard he felt like he was back in the bedroom with Gaara, but instead of being filled with passion and ecstasy, the all-consuming fear that had faded in his time with Gaara gripped him so fiercely once again that his chest ached with the pain of its reappearance. Keeping his back pressed to the wall like he could blend into it, he edged closer towards the main room. He felt like he wouldn't be able to keep still, wouldn't be able to stifle the scream that was building up in his throat, but even as he felt himself losing control, he felt the desert surround his mind and an immense sense of protection and safety overcome him. His thoughts began to straighten, the tightness in his chest began to fade. He remembered that he knew a jutsu he could perform to camouflage his body, and breathing more slowly and silently, he performed it and perked his ears in an effort to hear better, keeping the constant mantra going in his head, _be like Gaara_.

Gaara already knew where Naruto was by their connection and the sand grains he used to track Naruto but what made him almost too angry to focus was the intense fear and blinding panic that zoomed across their connection and filled his mind. Keeping his cool and sending some of it back along the invisible wire until he felt Naruto regain some sense of relative steadiness, he concentrated his thoughts on his sister and the last two people he wished to see at the moment. He crossed the room calmly and slowly as if he were approaching friends, but the deadly narrowing of his eyes made sure that no one doubted what simmered just beneath the surface.

"I don't remember inviting them or even communicating anything remotely close to an invitation in my last missive to the Leaf Country or any of its genin. Temari, what is the meaning of this?"

His voice was so low and deadly, it came out like a hiss that made Temari step back and Sasuke move to shield Sakura, who cringed slightly.

Temari attempted to splutter a response. "Well, Gaara, me and Kankuro were worried about you. I mean, uhh..."

"We came back for our friend! What the hell did you do to him?!"

After Naruto made his escape, Sasuke's expression had gone from disbelief to livid anger. His hand itched towards his weapons pouches but Gaara's next sibilant statement froze him.

"Please consider that any attempt on my life is seen as a direct threat and will have repercussions on your village and country."

Gaara turned to Temari, his voice taking on a business like tone that lost none of its menace. "Take our...guests and treat them with the hospitality that Sunagakure is know for. From their body language, I would assume they'd rather share a room than be in separate ones. For now, you can show them around the palace and the capital. These are not suggestions. I will speak with you later Temari."

He swept towards the hallway where Naruto, whose fear had become lost in Gaara's desert comfort, had become calm enough to drop his camouflage jutsu and allowed Temari, Sakura, and Sasuke to watch as Gaara took him under his arm and led him away.

* * *

Temari breathed a little easier when Gaara left. Despite being his sister, she never had grown accustomed to his near murderous rages. Turning to the two leaf genin with the intention of attempting to reassure them, she knew as soon as she saw their faces that it would be next to impossible. Sakura's face was full of fear and shock and Sasuke was so tense that she was surprised any part of him moved. The anger that was radiating off of Sasuke was what concerned her the most, and in order to preserve the beauty and structural soundness of the palace, she directed him to the open court that contained a training yard on the other side where he could expend some energy and went to take care of some of the matters that were assigned to her.

**Thock! Slice! Thock, thock! Slice, crunch, thock CRAAAAAAAAACK! BOOM!**

The thick, wooden training dummy that had withstood constant abuse from training genin and academy ninja fell to Sasuke's rage in a matter of seconds. He looked disgustedly at the fallen wood before looking around for another one to practice on. As he spotted one and raised a hand to throw a kunai at it, another hand grasped his, stopping him. Sakura's frightened face appearing over his arm gave him time to pause and remember that he wasn't the only one shocked about Naruto's changed appearance and weird behavior.

Sighing deeply, he collected himself and shoved the kunai back into his weapons pouch before taking Sakura into his arms. He could feel her trembling and cursed himself for not noticing sooner, the pain that surely must have gripped her as much as him when the knowledge of Naruto's whereabouts and physical state had reached them back in Konoha and the fear and confusion that had assaulted her at the sight of Naruto's appearance and strange behavior. Sakura had been strong for Sasuke and he'd taken that for granted and here was the result.

"Sasuke, that tip about the boy at the market...it was Naruto wasn't it? And we didn't follow it. Now look what he's like. He doesn't even want to talk to us....Is this our fault?"

She choked back a sob, but she couldn't hide the tears that began to stream down her face. Sasuke just held her tighter and thought about what more they could've done to find Naruto sooner. _What if we had followed that tip? Tracked him, caught up with him. Could we have prevented this? Would...?_ He shook his head to clear his thoughts. _No use regretting what we can't change. We just have to move forward from here._

"Sakura," he breathed, keeping his voice low and comforting, "there's no use in thinking about that right now." He began stroking her hair and rocking her from side to side. "Let's give him some time. He hasn't seen us in a long time; he just has to get used to us. Something must've happened, obviously, because he's acting weird. It'll be okay."

Sakura listened to him. _I know I'm probably just freaking out over nothing. He's probably right. Just give Naruto time. I can do that. It's no big deal. We've finally found him, we know where he is, a little more time won't matter._

But somehow, she couldn't stop the tears flowing down her cheeks and Sasuke grew silent, trying to believe his own words.

* * *

Gaara was angry but he couldn't think about that right now. He needed to focus on Naruto, who, although was calm under Gaara's influence, had a seething cauldron of fear and panic seething under the desert peace. Keeping Naruto tucked under his arm in the safety of the folds of his kazekage robes, he began to lead Naruto towards his room, but as if sensing the direction, Naruto stirred from Gaara's side and asked, "Where are we going?"

"I'm taking you to your room Naruto," Gaara answered, keeping his voice low and steady to preserve the tenuous steadiness of Naruto's mentality.

"No, not mine, yours." When Gaara paused, unsure about it, Naruto said, "It's closer."

Slightly surprised but hiding it, Gaara just nodded and changed his direction by turning the corner towards his own quarters rather than continuing towards Naruto's. They entered the privacy of the kazekage chambers and as Gaara turned to close the door behind them, Naruto went to the bed. By the time Gaara had turned around to face the room again, the calm that had kept Naruto centered in public had disappeared and a raging dread filled Gaara's heart and mind as it overflowed into his consciousness from Naruto's.

Naruto lay on the bed curled up in a fetal position, his breathing fast and shallow. Gaara went to him immediately, took him into his arms, tried to comfort him, but all Naruto could do was babble random things to try and distract himself.

"You know, Gaara, that other room isn't my room anymore. Your room is my room now, I moved in yesterday while you were busy. I heard your thinking, you know, through our connection? We can't really hide much from each other so when I heard your doubts I just wanted to prove you wrong and show you how much I love you and make sure we could stay together and...and..."

He'd run out of things to say. There was no avoiding it now. Naruto curled up into a tighter ball and began to cry. He didn't want to be weak. He didn't want to be scared. He felt absolutely stupid for losing his cool in the courtyard when Sakura and Sasuke had shown up and he felt even more stupid for being like this in front of Gaara. He wanted to be strong, to be able to stand up and take anything. But he'd never felt more human in all his life, crying on that bed.

Gaara read all these emotions: the fear, anger, frustration, embarrassment. He knew, probably better than anybody, what Naruto was going through. He sat on the bed next to him, let Naruto cry out the emotions that were tormenting him until he fell asleep.

Then he began to plan.

Sorry about taking so long to update. I'm a college girl so I've got a lot going on! I've been pretty busy with classes and this semester will be no different, but I will try to post more regularly! Promise! Review lots please! I love hearing your opinions. :3


	25. Chapter 24

Sasuke paced around the large palace, the only sign of his presence a shadow that blocked out the moonlight coming through the windows when he passed in front of them.

Temari, upon hearing about their relationship, had congratulated them and given them the room together as Gaara had indicated. Sakura, now that she wasn't on the move on a mission anymore, was exhausted and grateful for a proper bath and bed. Sasuke went through the motions with her, showering after Sakura was done with her bath and holding her to him in what was their very first time sleeping together. But he feigned slumber until he felt Sakura relax in his arms and her breathing slow and deepen in sleep. He made sure to not disturb her as he got up and left the room. He knew she'd be out all night.

He paced the halls, his mind racing and his blood humming. To have a mission end so abruptly, without some time to travel back to Konoha to cool off the adrenaline and tension that missions always came with, didn't do so well for him. The guards posted around the palace generally ignored the leaf genin as he walked around in just a pair of pajama pants, figuring he was trying to let off some steam.

Sasuke was at least grateful for that. The last thing he wanted to do was give Gaara a reason to be even more pissed. There were too many treaties, deals, and trade agreements between the two countries that Sasuke knew would be in jeopardy if he didn't behave while he was here.

All he could think about, though, was that image.

_They saw a gothic boy, clothed all in black and silver metal, his face glistening with the piercings that covered it, lying on a couch across the room, a book held loosely in one hand. The other hand was cradling Gaara's face to his like a wine chalice, their lips connected like he was drinking from them. Noticing the sudden hush that came from Temari's silence, the black-haired youth turned to look at them with forest green eyes, which widened as he recognized the recently arrived company. His body tensed, the book lying forgotten on the ground next to him. His defensive behavior tipped Gaara off, adding his gaze in the same general direction as Naruto's, revealing the change in his eyes and their colors. Before anyone else could say another word, Naruto disappeared in a cloud of smoke, the couch left empty where he sat moments before._

Any way he looked at it, it made him stop and shudder. What had possibly possessed Naruto? He was happy go lucky, stupidly so, but he always came back from everything. Even the worst thing possible that had ever happened to him, the kyuubi being placed inside of him, he'd bounced back from. Whatever caused him to change his appearance so radically, Sasuke could probably understand.

But kissing Gaara...he couldn't wrap his mind around it.

Sasuke continued to wander around aimlessly while he analyzed it. Before he'd disappeared, Sasuke knew that Naruto liked Sakura outrageously and had soft spots for different girls, like Hinata. Nothing he'd ever done had tipped off any feelings for any guys besides the normal friendship, indifference, or hatred that went for all the people Naruto knew. Sasuke thought about kissing another guy and scrunched up his face in distaste. How did Naruto like that kind of thing?

He closed his eyes and imagined kissing Sakura's pale pink lips, smelling her hair, feeling her soft skin. It felt so good, so natural. It calmed his mind to think of her and contemplate their future and where it was going. He lost himself in it.

When he opened his eyes again, he realized he'd stopped to lean his back against a wall without thinking and somehow in his wanderings ended up back at the courtyard where they'd seen Gaara and Naruto. The moon shining through the opaque glass of the skylight cast a beautiful, misty glow over the pond sunken in the middle of the large rectangular room. On the other side of the pond from Sasuke was the couch where he had seen Naruto. The book that he'd dropped still lay discarded on the floor.

Sasuke looked at the couch, trying to imagine what Naruto might've been doing before he'd been kissing Gaara. The book meant he must've been reading, obviously, and the position of the couch next to the pond which had the large skylight above it only backed up his reasoning. Calming atmosphere, good lighting, Naruto had changed not only on the surface but on the inside as well.

Naruto hadn't normally read books before, but Sasuke could almost see him lying on his side on the couch, scanning the pages before slowly turning them. This new side of Naruto that Sasuke was seeing seemed to suit him, the other end of the spectrum of what Naruto would've been if he hadn't been the orange wearing, ramen loving idiot that he had been.

A noise coming from the hallway to the left put Sasuke on edge and made him dash for a nearby partition that was in shadow. He pressed his back against it, his eye on the hallway across the way. He mentally cursed himself for being unarmed and unprepared, caught in only a pair of pj pants for protection. However, when he saw who was coming down the hall, he froze.

Gaara was strolling down the hall, his eyes staring straight ahead. His hands were tucked into the sleeves of his robes, his pace slow and measured. As he entered the moonlit inner courtyard, he looked from side to side before spotting what he was looking for and moving towards it. Sasuke barely breathed as he watched his once friend move towards the couch and pick up the book that had been left there, straightening some of the pages that were bent before placing them inside an inner pocket in his robes.

Sasuke almost heaved a sigh of relief before Gaara's soft voice filled the room and made his breath catch in his throat, "Don't think I don't know you're here. I can feel the sand on your skin pulse in time with your heart."

The game was up, so he decided to reveal himself before the powerful kazekage tried anything to force himself out. When he slipped into view, Gaara only smiled. It sent involuntary shivers up Sasuke's spine. His smile wouldn't have been so creepy if Gaara's eyes had matched.

Gaara noticed Sasuke's staring and soft chuckle escaped his lips before he explained them. "The blue in my eye? It is the physical evidence that a piece of the kyuubi resides within me."

Sasuke tensed, his stomach roiling. He thought he was going to be sick. How did part of kyuubi end up inside Gaara? Was it because Gaara and Naruto had...? That image in Sasuke's head was the last thing that he needed and he wretched a little.

Gaara only rolled his eyes in response and answered Sasuke's unspoken question. "No, it's not because we slept together, although that has happened,"–a satisfied smirk crossed Gaara's face briefly as Sasuke wretched again–"but it was because of that attempt on our lives. I had to perform a complicated jutsu that exchanged parts of our chakras. A part of Shukaku also lives inside Naruto now."

Sasuke couldn't hold his silence anymore. "How is that possible? Both his eyes are green."

Gaara closed his eyes and dismissed his comment. "The contacts are part of Naruto's original disguise. He likes them. Plus, he's self-conscious about the color change in his eye. He can cover it up if he wants. I don't have the time to be concerned about it."

Sasuke didn't know what to do. What could he say? It was like he didn't know who Naruto was anymore. All these strange new things. All this frustration took itself out with a punch to a nearby column that nearly dented the solid timber. Gaara hid his satisfaction and started to walk away back towards where he came from.

Sasuke muttered under his breath but so Gaara could hear, "We're going to take Naruto back. We'll figure things out. He'll go back to his normal, happy-go-lucky self and everything will go back to normal."

Gaara stopped and responded without turning around, "You can't force him. He left Konoha willingly and came here willingly. And what's wrong with him as he is now? He's happy now, still the same Naruto." With that, he turned his head so he could look at Sasuke with his one blue eye and hammer the final nail in the coffin and cement his plan. "NOTHING you can do or say will make him want to go back. You'll never truly understand Naruto."

Gaara left without a backward glance. Sasuke was left angry and confused, before he stalked off back to his bed with Sakura, plans formulating in his own mind. The moonlit pond remained peaceful, the koi fish kissing the surface of the pond in silence.

* * *

Thank you everyone for being so patient with me. Especial thanks to all those who review and leave their love, good wishes, and eagerness and excitement to read the next chapter in their comments (you know who you are! ;]) I am a busy college girl, as I like to keep mentioning. I have midterms coming up, but I promise to try and work on another chapter. This story is getting way juicy and I'm getting pretty pumped because what's coming up is GOOOOOOD! See you all at the next chapter and review lots and lots! Love you all!


	26. Chapter 25

The sun came bright and early, just like it did everyday, but today the dawn rose over Sunagakure to find hidden tension blanketing the whole city. A missive had come overnight from Kirigakure, the Village Hidden in Rain. Despite all their normal over the top security measures and the added precautions with the knowledge of the assassination attempts, someone had gotten in and nearly killed the Mizukage.

Everyone was on high alert and the security was beefed up to an almost unbelievable level. Sakura and Sasuke were interrogated for hours to decipher whether they were there on the errand they'd said or to kill Gaara, but they were soon cleared of any suspicion and released. They were kept on the inside of the huge security wall to be on the safe side in case they became targets by the enemy to manipulate or use.

Because of the intensity of the situation, Gaara was suddenly required at all hours to keep the peace in the village that he loved and to correspond with the different kages of the Five Great Shinobi Nations. Anything concerning Naruto he had to put on the back burner, so with a kiss and a smile of reassurance, he told Naruto when the state of affairs had calmed, they could return to how they'd been. As he consulted with counselors and formed new strategies of defense for the village as well as monitored the lifelines of the village, it became so much that Gaara was rarely allowed to sleep. He didn't even return to his room.

So Naruto just took to taking early morning trips to the library, stocking up on as many books as he could carry, and secluding himself in Gaara's room to read them. Someone brought him meals everyday and if Gaara had time to remember, sometimes a bowl of ramen would show up at the door just for him, but that was rare.

The seclusion did well for Naruto though. No one bothered him and he wasn't bothering anybody. Sometimes if he was bored he'd go grab a scroll and learn a new genjutsu or ninjutsu or study up on taijutsu he'd never known about before. He'd work on them in secret and with each new one he mastered or learned about, the better he felt.

In fact, the fear that had crippled him for more than a month was practically gone. He was coming back to the way he had been before. It felt good, not flinching every time he heard another missive from Konoha had arrived or not bending over with crippling pain every time he thought about his old home and friends

A week or so had passed of this routine, but eventually, Naruto had to let a little tension loose. Because of their connection, Naruto usually knew what was going on around and inside of Gaara. Although the kazekage had done his best to block out everything from Naruto, his feelings of tension and exhaustion were starting to creep their way across their mental connection and affect Naruto.

At first, he'd tried to ignore it. He kept reading his books, but instead of being to keep his normal stillness as he read them, he began to move, trying to get rid of the unrest that wasn't his but nonetheless felt. When sitting in his favorite chair failed, he transferred himself to the floor, and when that failed, he moved himself to the bed, where he'd toss and turn. Eventually, Naruto threw the book on the bed to stand up and stretch.

"Geez, I know this whole thing is real stressful and all, but it has nothing to do with me and it's getting to me anyway," he complained, trying to rid himself of the knots in his shoulders that he'd been subconsciously hunching.

He tried pacing, some intense taijutsu training, anything to get rid of his excess energy and tire him out, but nothing worked.

"God, what am I gonna do to relax?"

He looked around before his eyes landed on the door to the bathroom.

"That's it! I'll take a bath! That should be relaxing."

He grabbed the book he'd been reading and went inside. The bathroom was huge, with a large Roman bathtub that looked more like a jacuzzi than a tub and a shower that a small crowd of people could fit in comfortably. He turned the faucet and watched as the steam rose from the collecting hot water before he set his book down on the counter and began to strip. He'd gotten only his shirt off before deciding on a whim to add bubbles. Why not make it fun too?

By the time it was time to turn off the water, Naruto's clothes were a lump of black on the tiled floor. He took a cursory look in the mirror. His body was still well muscled, but there were a few scars from the beating he took in the desert. Nothing too noticeable or major. Plus, he thought they just added to the coolness that his rugged good looks and the piercings already created. He smirked at himself in the mirror, gave himself a thumbs up, and then retrieved his book.

He carefully settled himself in the bubbly water so he didn't get the book wet before sitting back and laying his head on the headrest. He could already feel his muscles untightening and he gave a big sigh of satisfaction. He began reading, the steam and scent of the bubblebath filling up the bathroom and once more making him oblivious to the world outside.

* * *

Sasuke was restless. Staying inside was not his usual cup of tea, but he was too busy thinking about other things to let it bother him. Ever since the night he'd talked to Gaara, he'd been trying to figure out a way to make the words he spoke wrong.

Naruto would come back, he had to. It was how it was supposed to be, how it needed to be. Yeah Naruto'd left of his own will, but so had Sasuke and Naruto still brought him back. If he couldn't bring Naruto back, he'd be a failure, and he couldn't be a failure.

These thoughts had occupied his mind to the point where he and Sakura were distancing and the hours of interrogation at the news of the near successful assassination hadn't affected him in the least. He knew he'd retreated to his old brooding ways, but he didn't really care. Brooding is what he did best and it helped him think when he kept to himself.

Over the week, he'd been pacing the hallways, seemingly aimlessly, and since he'd been cleared the guard normally just ignored him and chalked it off to just being restless from being kept inside. He was happy they did. Really, he'd been scouting out the entire wing he'd been confined too. At first, he'd just wanted to find Naruto but when he couldn't find him anywhere, he changed tactics.

By the third day of stalking around he'd mentally mapped out the entire place. He then devoted the rest of his time figuring out what room was what. The doors were typically unmarked and so he wouldn't arouse suspicions, he only looked inside them when no one was around. Naruto had to be hiding somewhere in the building. He thought Gaara would have him under as strict of security as himself, but he never saw any huge clusters of guards outside any door besides the one that Gaara had established as his temporary headquarters. It made the search harder, but not impossible.

He finally got tired of being frustrated and stopped himself to sit down and assess what he might be missing. What would someone in seclusion need? A distraction. Now apply the Naruto that Sasuke knew and the Naruto that he knew of. He'd obviously taken up some new hobbies while he'd been here. The book that Gaara had retrieved from under the couch that Naruto had been lying on came to mind. So, Naruto was a reader now. In order not to be seen, he'd either have to make the trips to the library at night or within a short walking distance or both. Sasuke found the library yesterday, so he now knew the general area he could focus his search.

A definite need would be food, and unless Naruto's stomach had shrunk in the last month or so, his appetite was the same as ever. Naruto obviously wasn't coming out of wherever he was hiding, even for food, so he must be having meals brought to him. Sasuke's stomach growled, and using that as a sign, knew it was lunchtime. He got up and dashed in the direction of the library. If he wanted any chance of finding Naruto before dinner, he'd better move.

He stopped at the door to the library to grab a book before he started to walk around in the general area. He would stop anybody he came across and ask them, "Excuse me, but I was supposed to deliver this book to Naruto but I can't seem to find him. Do you know where he is?" They always told him they couldn't help him or they didn't know and go on their way as Sasuke just grew more and more frustrated. At this rate he'd never find Naruto in such a large wing and he'd never be able to straighten him out.

He spotted a young girl and determined this was going to be the last person he asked. When he repeated his question to her and showed her the book, she looked up at him and asked, "Who's Naruto?" He gritted his teeth and his other fist clenched but he told her what Naruto looked like, stuttering a bit and having to correct himself when he almost said blonde hair and blue eyes. When he'd finished the girl smiled and said, "Oh, is that his name? I've been bringing him meals since the crisis started on Kazekage-sama's orders. He's very nice."

Sasuke could barely contain himself at his luck. To come across the very person who delivered him food? Best thing that could've happened to him. "Yes, he is. Could you show me to his room?" This was the crucial moment, to see if she would, but it was like God was smiling on him. She said, "Follow me," and then turned to walk down the hall.

She led him to a door he'd passed but hadn't checked. He thanked her and stood outside the door, the anticipation building up inside of him. What would he say? He had so many words, so many arguments inside of him, but he didn't know which was the best course to take because he didn't know what Naruto was like anymore. But he didn't have the time to spare to figure that out.

He reached out and turned the knob. It was open. He slowly opened the door and peaked his head in to survey the room. Naruto was nowhere to be seen, but evidence of him could be seen everywhere. The bed was a mess of red sheets, a pile of books was stacked on the desk with the food the girl brought steaming next to it, a few pieces of black clothing were littered around the room, and an open box full of different earrings, piercings, rings, and necklaces, all obviously Naruto's, sitting on a dresser across the room.

"Hello?" Sasuke said, as he knocked on the door and finally walked into the room.

* * *

Naruto heard a call and a knock. _Must be the food,_ he thought, slipping a cold cloth on his head so he wouldn't pass out from being in the hot water too long. "Come in!" he called, "just leave the food here. I'll eat it later." He went back to finding the line he'd left off at to put the cloth on his head when he heard the bathroom door open. He sighed and made sure that he kept his book above water with his one hand while he put his other hand to his head to keep the cloth in place before he turned around, "is there something that you nee–"

His voice died in his throat as he saw, through the steam, Sasuke closing the door. He didn't know what to say, but Sasuke took care of that for him when he turned around with a determined fire in his eyes.

"Naruto, we need to talk."

* * *

So, I had a hard time these last week or two. I got a bad case of writer's block, the 1 year anniversary of my lovely fiancé asking me out was Wednesday but we're currently 662 miles apart and that hit me really hard, and I've been recovering from being sick. Please review. I enjoy your opinions a lot and they'll certainly up my low morale.


	27. Chapter 26

Naruto was frozen in place, his hands full and vulnerable. He didn't know quite what to do or say and apparently Sasuke hadn't thought much further past saying that crucial line because they stared at each other in silence, the only sound in the room their shallow, quick breathing. Naruto ended up collecting himself first.

"Um, about what?"

Sasuke had been worried and searching for weeks, grieving and thinking his best friend, the one who'd saved him from a life, or death, with Orochimaru, was dead. Every day he'd clung to a shred of hope that Naruto was still alive, which ended up torturing him every day when there was no news of him. The relief that had flooded through his bloodstream like adrenaline when Tsunade had received word that Naruto was alive but was quickly poisoned with the news that he'd been injured and the fear and desperation that had been the undercurrent of their trip to the sand country. The shock and disgust and confusion at the sight of Naruto kissing Gaara and the frustration at Gaara blocking Sasuke from seeing and talking sense into his best friend.

It all exploded out in that one phrase.

Gaara, despite being totally occupied with figuring out how to make it so their borders were patrolled at all times, could feel through the connection Naruto's growing wariness. Taking a mental break from the patrol math, he sifted through the sunshine aura to find the most recent thoughts.

Ah, so Sasuke had found him. Despite himself, Gaara made a slight smirk. He knew by flustering Sasuke and goading him and making getting to Naruto a challenge he would screw up any chances he had to get Naruto back. Sasuke would try something huge and drastic to convince Naruto to come back which would push Naruto so far away nothing would be able to fix it.

Gaara turned his mind back to the patrols, confident. Even if Sasuke tried something dangerous, Naruto knew so many new techniques that he could take care of himself and then some.

Sasuke lost his composure, his patience, his reserve, his mind.

"Do you have ANY idea? Nevermind, of COURSE you don't! You've been here having a little vacation in the sand country with Gaara while all of us have been worried SICK!"

By this time, Naruto was in major defensive mode. He put the cold cloth and book on a cupboard and got out of the tub, strategically grabbing a towel and wrapping it around his waist while Sasuke was yelling at him. He didn't say anything. The way Sasuke was going on, he knew that if he tried to say anything in his own defense, Sasuke would do something he'd regret. He kept himself cool and composed, went over to the sink. He needed to check his hair to see if he needed to re-dye it, but as he rubbed the steam off the mirror and Sasuke's yelling ended, Sasuke's face hovered directly behind his shoulder in the reflection.

Naruto whirled around with his fists up to defend himself but Sasuke caught his wrists faster than Naruto could blink and shoved him against the sink so their bodies were pressed together in the steamy air. Sasuke's black eyes were fiery with rage as he hissed in Naruto's face.

"And since when do you like GUYS? What the hell is up with that?"

Naruto blushed involuntarily, embarrassed and slightly stimulated by the aggression, but he shook it off and broke Sasuke's grip, pushing him away and setting his jaw. "I don't have to explain myself to you. You wouldn't understand anyway. Only Gaara does. But I don't care what you have to say, I'm staying HERE."

And with that, Naruto knocked Sasuke aside and strode for the door.

And then he hit the ground, tackled there by Sasuke.

"Sasuke, what the fucking hell are you doing? Get off me!" Naruto yelled as he struggled to fight Sasuke off him. He'd managed to wrestle himself so he was facing Sasuke, but he was still on the ground and Sasuke had managed to grab his wrists again. Naruto tried to kick him off, but Sasuke managed to straddle him with his legs on either side of Naruto's waist so Naruto's legs couldn't get him.

To stop Naruto from struggling anymore, Sasuke pulled on his wrists so Naruto came up slightly before slamming them back down on the floor, Naruto's head cracking on the tile. Naruto lay there, temporarily stunned and still weakly trying to fight Sasuke off, while Sasuke steeled himself and then proceeded to feel Naruto up and whisper things in his ear.

"What do I have to do to get you to come back? Is it because you like this?"

Sasuke began sucking on Naruto's neck. Naruto shuddered from pleasure but shook his head, still trying to push Sasuke off of him. It wasn't right, this. He was Gaara's.

"WHY do you like this? It's unnatural."

Sasuke traced his tongue along Naruto's jaw before he began kissing him, keeping their lips connected as long as he could before Naruto could jerk his head away. Naruto was feeling sick. Had he gotten a concussion? Or was it what Sasuke was doing to him?

"Sasuke...wha...what are you doing?"

The words were breathless and forced. He was feeling dizzy and could barely speak, trying to resist being turned on by Sasuke's actions.

"I'm showing you what I'll do to get you back. If you like this, then I'll do it."

Sasuke brought Naruto's wrists together and held them with one of his powerful hands while the other made its way down Naruto's chest, feeling the muscles under the soft, sweating skin shiver under his touch. Sasuke didn't know whether to be disgusted or flattered.

His hand continued its journey down to the towel that was still wrapped around Naruto's waist, gently untucking it and uncovering one leg, leaving the other and Naruto's manhood covered in the cream colored cloth. Slowly, agonizingly to Naruto, he felt down his thigh, Sasuke's large, tan hand pressing into his flesh sensually, beginning to drive Naruto crazy.

When he reached Naruto's knee, Sasuke seemed to pause before suddenly hiking Naruto's leg up so as to grant him easier access.

It was here that Naruto drew the line. He was sure he had a concussion now and, more out of an effort to control the pounding headache growing in his skull, he had closed his eyes and dropped off resisting Sasuke despite how much he was being turned on against his will. But that move implied a certain level of intimacy that he had only ever shared with one person and he was not about to share it with anybody else.

Naruto's eyes snapped open, his hands making several quick hand signs before Sasuke knew what he was doing. Sasuke found himself clutching, instead of Naruto, a very angry desert snake.

Naruto reappeared in the library, naked and breathing hard. He threw up from the effort of performing the jutsu. All his strength was gone and he was in seriously bad shape. He knew he needed help, but all he could do was curl up in a ball and try to contain the pain. He heard cloth rustling and then he felt himself enveloped in cool, soft cloth and lifted in a pair of strong, protecting arms. He could tell just by the scent and the low, reassuring crooning in his ear who held him. Gaara would always be there for him, he knew he would be.

Gaara's victory was lost on him. All Gaara had eyes and attention for was his little fox.

Too all who waited for this newest chapter, I apologize and thank you for your patience. You know how crazy life gets. Seeing as how I had absolutely nothing to do today, I decided to sit down and write this dumb thing. It took me hours. I hope you're happy with it! Hopefully I'll have absolutely nothing to do again soon so I can write another. Now get ready for school all!


	28. Chapter 27

When Gaara arrived back at their room, Sasuke was gone. Laying Naruto down on the bed and covering him in the cool, silk sheets, he went to the bathroom to retrieve the cool cloth he knew Naruto had been using earlier. All that remained in the bathroom was the snake, now pacified with the departure of Sasuke, and a few droplets of blood.

As the door opened, Gaara moved aside. The snake slithered past and made its way across the floor before curling up next to the door, its tongue flickering in and out to taste the air, guarding the door.

Naruto moaned, pulling Gaara from his bemused observation of the 'guard dog' that Naruto had summoned back to the present. He moved a bit more quickly now. He was no medic, but he knew that a concussion needed to be treated and quickly.

He brought the cool compress back to Naruto, placing it on the back of his head and propping him up on the pillows. A crease appeared on Gaara's brow as he tried to keep Naruto awake. He didn't want to admit it, but he was panicking a little. All his medics were on high alert, on call 24/7. He didn't want to pull any of those valuable resources away even though he had the power to, but he had barely any training or experience in the healing arts.

As he gently stroked Naruto's hair, frowning at his problem, a medic entered his mind. Summoning a guard and instructing him to keep Naruto awake, he left the room with a purpose.

This was going to need a personal touch.

The room was quiet. Sakura had just finished bandaging Sasuke's arm. She'd asked how he'd hurt himself but all he did was mumble something about being careless with a kunai before falling silent again. She knew he was hiding something, but she didn't press the issue.

He wouldn't look at her. He sat at the end of the bed, his eyes out of focus, one of his fingers tracing his lips.

"What're you thinking about," she asked, but she didn't expect much of an answer.

"Hmmm...what?" He turned around to look at her, his hand falling away from his face as he came back to his senses. "Oh, um, kissing you." But his voice went funny as he said this and he kissed her too swiftly to be truthful before returning to the tracing of his own lips.

She turned away from him, a weight growing in her chest. This trip had been hard on them but it wasn't until Sasuke had seen Naruto and Gaara... She shook her head to clear the memory from her mind. Distractedly, she pulled out some of her weapons and began sharpening them for want of something to do.

"You're grinding the wrong way. You'll only dull the blades," Sasuke said absentmindedly, still tracing his lips and staring off into the distance.

Sakura looked down at what she was doing and realized he was right. She corrected her strokes and soon she could cut a piece of paper without trying with each bladed weapons she had. She slipped them back into her bag and pulled out her scrolls, unfurling them and checking that the ink was not smudged or damaged in any way.

There was a knock at the door and it opened.

There stood Gaara, his kazekage robes flowing around him as he swept into the room. Sasuke's reaction tipped Sakura off. He stood up so fast she would've missed it if she'd blinked and he grabbed his bandaged arm but let it go when he noticed she was looking at him critically. What interested her the most, however, was his expression. It was defiant, like he was expecting Gaara to be angry but he was not about to apologize for whatever he'd done.

Gaara gazed at him, his expression unfathomable, before turning to Sakura.

"I have need of your assistance, if you would be so kind as to provide it," he murmured, his voice clear despite his soft speech.

Sakura stiffened, looking at Sasuke swiftly before answering. "What kind of assistance do you require?"

"Healing. My medics are busy and I would not take them away from their work. And I, regretfully, am not as professed in the art as I would like to be. But I have heard from the honorable Hokage herself that you," he inclined his head slightly in respect, "are quite adept at them."

She blinked in surprise and relaxed, feeling a little flattered. Ignoring the look of extreme suspicion that was plastered across Sasuke's face, she began to examine Gaara's form, attempting to detect any injuries or sickness.

"You don't seem to need any help," she said, still scanning his body.

"Oh, it is not I who needs help, but Naruto," Gaara answered simply, his dual forest and sky gaze sliding back to Sasuke, who turned slightly red at this. "And I'm afraid that we need to hurry. That is, of course, if you're in agreement?"

Sakura didn't need another word of persuasion. She grabbed her pouch of medical supplies and left the room without a backward glance. Gaara did not say a word but, giving one last significant glance in Sasuke's direction, closed the door behind him.

As Sakura followed Gaara down the hallway, past all the messengers and guards busy with their own errands, she debated how best to ask Gaara about Naruto's symptoms. She knew Gaara wasn't the most talkative of people and this was probably the first time she'd ever been alone with him. She stared at the back of his head, willing herself to open her mouth and speak, but while her brain attempted to force speech from her, her eyes wandered down to look at his broad shoulders.

_They're so well-muscled_, she thought, observing what contours of his body she could distinguish inside the robes, _and from the looks of it, he's very well developed for a male his age. If he weren't wearing those robes–_

She mentally kicked herself. She was supposed to be thinking about how to help Naruto, not undressing Gaara with her eyes!

"So what is wrong exactly? I mean, with Naruto? Did he hurt himself" Her voice came out unnaturally loud and she shut her mouth quickly. Gaara only looked back at her with an eyebrow slightly raised over his normally colored eye before he faced forward again.

"No, he didn't hurt himself. Surprisingly, he's quite graceful, even with what he wears now. No, he and Sasuke got into a...tussle...and Naruto hit his head on the floor pretty hard. We believe it's a concussion, but without any real medical experience, we don't know for sure."

"We?"

"Naruto and I. He shared how he felt with me and what he thought was wrong and I agreed." Gaara wasn't about to tell Sakura anything about the connection and the way he'd phrased it just now, technically, he wasn't lying about Naruto sharing his thoughts and feelings.

Sakura fell silent, thinking about this. Sasuke had found Naruto then. They'd fought. She wished Sasuke would tell her what happened but she knew him and how he liked to keep things to himself, especially things that weren't exactly great morale boosters. She decided she would talk to him about this later. Right now, Naruto was the priority.

"I apologize for your less than hospitable welcome."

Gaara's sudden statement caused Sakura to snap back to attention just in time to stop herself from running into the kazekage. He'd paused outside of a door and turned back to face her. She breathed a quick sigh of relief from avoiding disaster before looking into his mismatched eyes, her expression politely questioning.

"I supposed I should clarify. Naruto had appeared in my country in very bad shape. In an effort to keep worry from you and return him whole, I kept his presence a secret and forbid anyone from sharing the information outside of the palace. However some...events," he paused here, his mind flashing back to the foiled assassination attempt, the poison dart that had nearly taken Naruto's life, and the dangerous jutsu he'd performed that had nearly killed them both. "...Some events made my siblings, out of concern for me, go against mine and Naruto's wishes."

"Naruto didn't want us to know that he was here?" Sakura realized she'd interrupted him and covered her mouth in fear. Wars between villages were started over lesser things. Gaara was forgiving, knowing she only spoke out of concern and confusion. He made a quick decision.

"You must not let him know that I have told you and you must not tell anyone else, even Sasuke."

Sakura nodded, her face serious and set.

"Naruto informed me this whole thing started with vandalism to his apartment and ended in a clearing outside of Konoha, where several jounin appeared and showed him a missive that spoke of Naruto's impending extermination that was to go out to every village in the land. Now you and I should know better than anyone that Naruto is always on the defensive because of the demon sealed inside him."

Sakura nodded sadly, the knowledge still crushing to her that Naruto was hated because of this when he was a perfectly good person.

"So, he believed them and ran away. Everything that he knew was a lie, or so he thought. He left behind his forehead protector and threw away his favorite orange jumpsuit and changed everything about himself to hide. He had no friends and he had no family, so he wandered and ended up in my desert where he was attacked and left to die–," Sakura gasped, "but I was able to find and save him in time. You already know from the missive dear Temari and Kankuro wrote what has happened since then and now here you are and I still must apologize for my reaction to your arrival. I was not hospitable and my anger should not have been directed at you."

"Oh, I understand, it's alright," Sakura replied, her mind roiling with the information that Gaara had just shared with her.

Gaara inclined his head in a silent thanks before directing her attention to the door they were standing outside of.

"Naruto is inside, and I would impress that you are as quiet as you can be. He has quite the headache."

Sakura opened the door and stepped inside.

The snake, detecting Sasuke's scent on her clothes, raised its hood and struck.

Well, here's two chapters in a row. Don't count on it being a habit though. I do have a life! Even if the hubby is out of town ;-; haha. Review review review! I love reading them!


	29. Chapter 28

With a sharp word of command from Gaara that cut through the silence like a knife, the snake disintegrated into a pile of sand just millimeters away from its fangs piercing Sakura's skin, now flushed red with the adrenaline that was pumping through her system. Sakura hadn't even had time to get a scream out. It was stuck in her throat and she collapsed onto her hands and knees holding it in and trying to get herself together. The experience had shocked her.

"Kazekage-sama, I apologize for my inattentiveness to the snake. I should have realized it was a threat." Gaara turned from checking on Sakura to look at the guard. He was standing straight as a board and at attention, but Gaara could tell under the militaristic facade that he would be sweating bullets if he broke form.

"You are excused," Gaara said, waving him off and turning his attention back to Sakura. The guard left as normally as possible, but his pace was a little to fast to be relaxed. He'd gotten off easy and he knew it. Gaara inwardly chuckled before he went to check on Naruto, who still looked dazed and a little confused.

Sakura had finally gathered some composure and stood up, dusting herself up before quickly looking around the room. It was spacious but slightly messy. She could tell that Naruto obviously lived in here because Gaara would never have clothes on the floor or books all over the room in different places. But, with that thought crossing her mind, she remembered why she was there and looked towards the bed and then away, wishing she hadn't.

Naruto was lying there, wrapped in a white fleece blanket with Gaara standing over him, his hand lying on top of Naruto's own. If Naruto had gotten a concussion, it didn't look like it now. When he'd looked stunned only a moment before, with Gaara's touch his eyes had come into focus and they were looking into each other's eyes with a level of intimacy that made Sakura look away. They seemed to be speaking to each other without using words.

Sakura felt a prick of jealousy and longing. She and Sasuke used to be the same way but they'd lost it in this whole mess. She went to sleep by herself and woke up with the other side slept in. She was constantly alone now, even if she was with Sasuke, who'd retreat into himself almost constantly now. She didn't know how much longer she could keep going if this kept up. But she realized with a jolt that someone was saying her name and she shook herself and turned back to see who it was.

It was Gaara, whose hand had moved from Naruto's hand to his shoulder. Naruto was lying back into the pillows, his arm shielding his eyes from the light and his teeth gritted in pain. Sakura was all business now. Striding to the bed and kneeling next to it, she took Naruto's pulse and scanned what she could see of his body, searching for symptoms and other injuries.

"Naruto," she said, keeping her voice steady and calm as she checked his other vitals, "it's Sakura. How're you feeling?"

At first Naruto stiffened and opened his eyes to give her a look she couldn't discern before sighing and speaking in a hoarse whisper, his words slightly slurred. "I feel like shit. My head's pounding. I can't see straight. Can we turn off the lights? I feel like it's stabbing my eyes." This last statement was directed at Gaara more than anything else, who shook his head in answer, his face apologetic.

_She has to be able to see you to treat you, __**little fox**__._

_Screw that. My head is killing me._

_Let her do her job __**little fox**__._

_Fuck you._

Gaara mentally recoiled but brushed it off. He could feel Naruto's pain through their connection. Naruto couldn't focus or think logically. His mind was chaotic, the pain at the forefront of his mind.

Suddenly, Naruto giggled a little. "I sound drunk when I talk. See Gaara? 'S all funny. And Sakura looks all fuzzy." He yawned, stretching and disrupting Sakura's inspection. "I'm so tired. Night y'guys."

Sakura looked really worried. "Gaara, we can't let him fall asleep. Help me get him up."

Gaara coughed, looking slightly uncomfortable for the first time that Sakura could remember. "That would...uh...you might want to leave the room for a mo–"

Naruto sat up, gathering the white blanket around his shoulders like a little kid. "You don't hafta get me up. I can get up myself. See?" He stood up and tried to walk but he lost his balance almost immediately. He giggled sillily, losing grip of the blanket so it fell down around his waist.

Sakura's face heated up almost immediately. She couldn't remember a time where'd she'd ever seen Naruto's naked torso, he typically always wore a tank top under his jumpsuit. Suddenly, it wasn't hard to imagine why Gaara would be attracted. She certainly was.

An idea popped into her head. "Hey Naruto, would you like some food? I can make a special soup to make your headache go away. You just have to stay in bed and be good, alright?"

"Alright," Naruto said, and he started to stand up. Sakura's face went redder than it already was, but suddenly Gaara was there next to Naruto, lifting the blanket up with him so he stayed covered. Sakura covered her face with one hand while she held her ribs with the other and ran out of the room. It was probably better if she did. She realized why Gaara had been so uncomfortable about Naruto standing up. He was completely naked.

To pass the time, she found the kitchen and made a simple broth with noodles. She added her own herbs to kill the pain and put Naruto to sleep so she could better examine him and talk to Gaara about his treatment. She returned to find Gaara sitting on the bed, holding Naruto firmly in his arms wrapped up in the blanket while he struggled to get out, objecting loudly like a frustrated child. Gaara's arms were like vices and no matter what Naruto did, he couldn't escape. He finally stopped, mad, and lay back against Gaara's chest, his arms folded.

Gaara held him closer, lowering his face to Naruto's ear, softly rebuking him and whispering things to him that she couldn't hear. Sakura watched with amazement as Naruto melted and calmed before her eyes, a blush darkening his pale cheeks to a dusky rose color, looking at Gaara with a bashful expression on his face. But then he noticed Sakura, and the moment was forgotten between the two. For Sakura, it was burned into her memory like a hot brand.

She hitched a smile on her face and came forward, giving the soup to Naruto and giving a Gaara a telling look with a glance at the soup and then back at Gaara. He inclined his head an inch, indicating he understood. Naruto happily slurped up the soup, talking excitedly to Gaara the whole time, who answered tranquilly and urged Naruto to keep eating his soup. It wasn't long after he finished it that he was asleep against Gaara's shoulder, his hand clutching a handful of the kazekage robes against Gaara's chest.

"I would like to continue examining his injury, if that would be alright with you," she murmured, her eyes slightly averted but her voice steady. She had a duty to uphold, she had to look after Naruto. Gaara nodded slightly, signaling his approval. Sakura went around to the other side of the large bed and she watched as Gaara gently placed his hand on the side of Naruto's head to keep it from jostling as she clambered on. When she reached the pair, she began inspecting Naruto's head, searching for the wound that would give her a better diagnosis. While her fingers softly probed through Naruto's silky black hair, she kept glancing alternatively from Gaara's uncharacteristically concerned expression to Naruto's calm, if pale, face, and just thinking.

Sakura could not ignore the change in either Gaara's demeanor or actions, as she was sure her siblings couldn't either. Gaara was showing a tenderness that she had no idea he was possessed, or even had the capacity to be capable of. The Gaara she knew, even after he had softened somewhat, had shown no form of affection for anyone, not even his own family. It was unsettling, but at the same time, for Sakura, it was mostly fascinating. She felt she could watch their interactions with each other forever, but it was more out of curiosity in trying to understand it than a creepy, stalker-ish way.

Naruto, on the other hand, was another story. He had by no means not had luck with the ladies, but he'd never committed to anyone specific. Sakura thought that part of it was the kitsune inside him either scared away girls or caused them to dismiss him, but even the girls who were interested he never was particularly interested in back. He went out, but it seemed whatever he was looking for wasn't in the village. Even despite having many good friends, he always seemed alone.

But here, with Gaara, far away from the village he'd known all his life and to which his loyalty as a ninja lay, he was a changed person. He'd completely changed his appearance to the point where he couldn't walk through a metal detector without setting it off. He'd nearly died–three times. He'd fallen in love with the leader of a totally different country. To top it all off, the leader was a man.

But Sakura had never seen him so happy. Naruto had opened up his heart. He was still a punk, but he'd found another side of him that Sakura never would've known existed had all this not happened. It seems the flip side of the overly confident orange jumpsuited moron that couldn't shut up or be quiet was a soulful goth who read obscure novels and exuded a quiet confidence while offering everything he had to give.

At this point Sakura found the bump on the back of Naruto's head and when she touched it, Naruto flinched. What was strange was at exactly the same time Gaara twitched a little as well. She looked at his face and saw a slightly pained expression on his face before it smoothed out back to the concern that was on it before. She didn't have much time to think about it before they both felt Naruto stir and looked at Naruto's face to make sure he hadn't woken. Naruto just sighed in his sleep and clutched at Gaara's robes even harder. A small smile lit and softened Gaara's normally stiff features.

Sakura didn't say anything as she began inspecting the swelling to make sure there was no blood or other serious injury hidden under the hair, but she was still thinking. She didn't know exactly what Naruto and Gaara were, but she would find out. And she already had a plan forming in her mind of exactly how she was going to do it.

So here's another chapter. I hope you enjoy it and please review. Happy Valentine's Day to everyone :]


	30. Chapter 29

Gaara gently pried loose Naruto's fingers, carefully laying him down so that Sakura could still work with him. A little drool was starting to drip out the corner of his mouth. He carefully wiped it off with the corner of his sleeve before excusing himself to the bathroom. He had to look around a little before finding it, but when he found the microscopic crack in the tile, he felt his blood simmer under his skin. He stared at it. He lay his head back on it so it exactly lined up with the center of the small ache in his skull, the result of the connection.

He closed his eyes and thought back –

_...to stop Naruto from struggling anymore, Sasuke pulled on his wrists –_

Gaara brought his wrists up, his breathing beginning to speed up as his rage began to build.

_...so Naruto came up slightly –_

Gaara copied. He wanted to know exactly how it felt.

– _before slamming them back down on the floor, Naruto's head cracking on the tile._

His head fell against the floor with a dull thud. His jaw was locked, focused on the cracking sound in his mind. His fists were held clenched at his sides, the nails digging into his skin to contain himself. The sound of the door opening slightly made his eyes flash open to see Sakura standing there, watching him. He tried to regain his composure but he sat up too quickly and the combined pain in his head and head rush made him weak enough that, for a moment, he had to catch himself with one hand while the other he buried his face into.

Sakura rushed over, crouching next to him. She took Gaara's face in her hands and brought it to the light. A flicker of disconcertion crossed her face at the sight of Gaara's eyes, but she shook it off as she took in his flushed complexion and his heavy breathing. She brushed the hair back from his eyes and put the back of her hand on his forehead to check his temperature.

"How are you feeling, Gaara?" she asked. She noticed the love sign over his brow was hot.

Gaara brushed her off and tried to stand but Sakura pushed him back down to the floor, trying to keep her eyes focused on the pulse she was taking and not on the chest peaking through the robe that had slipped slightly askew when she pushed him back down. She could feel a blush coming on and she tried to hide her embarrassment by blustering and keeping her head down, but that only served to give her a better view and make her bluster even more.

To cover up her increasing blush, she checked his eyes –also not a good idea because she got preoccupied with their colors again– and asked, "What're you doing in here Gaara? Especially on the floor. Did you slip?" She glanced around quickly but saw no particular shine to the floor that would indicate it being wet. She waited for his answer while she checked his breathing.

Gaara wasn't a fussy person and he certainly didn't like being fussed over. "I didn't slip. I'm completely fine. Now if you'll excu–"

He'd tried to push himself off the floor to stand, but since Sakura was hovering over him checking him out, he'd bumped into her and, consequently, they both lost their balance. He fell back in slow motion. He could tell his head was headed for the exact spot Naruto's had cracked on the tile. But unlike Naruto, he had a country that he needed to run that was currently in peril.

Sand was suddenly beneath Gaara, cushioning his fall. However, nothing prepared him for what happened next.

As he and Sakura fell, she put her arms out to cushion her fall. They ended up landing on his chest but, unable to stop her momentum, she kept going, planting one squarely on Gaara's lips.

They were both so shocked by what just happened, they lay there for a bit, staring wide eyed at each other, their lips still connected. Sakura could feel the muscled torso beneath her body quivering and she found she was shivering a bit herself. Gaara couldn't move. He was not one to be taken surprise by anything. He relied on his sharp instincts as well as his quick reflexes to come out on top in any fight he'd been in. This was definitely not a fight that he was ready for.

Sakura broke the kiss after what seemed like an eternity. She scrambled off of him as fast as she could, standing up quickly, mumbling stunned apologies and blushing even more furiously than before, hiding her mouth with her hand and shyly tracing a small circle on the floor with her toe.

She was looking anywhere but at Gaara. What had she done? Granted, this was an accident, but still! She had just kissed someone else other than her boyfriend, and on top of that, it was Gaara, Kazekage of the Hidden Sand Village! _I guess if I was gonna go all the way, at least it was with someone worth it,_ she thought, doing anything to rationalize what just happened so her brain could process it.

It didn't help when she finally looked back at Gaara's face.

Gaara was blushing! He'd sat up, resting on an elbow, while he awkwardly rubbed at his slightly aching head, a dusky rose color lit up his cheeks. He was looking away from her. He looked slightly put out, like he was thinking but what he was thinking about Sakura could only guess at.

She watched him until he finally, slowly, glanced back in her direction. When their eyes met, they looked at each other; Sakura an open book, Gaara inscrutable. Finally, Gaara opened his mouth.

"This never happened."

She nodded furiously. This was a sticky situation. They were...**both** with someone, she mentally cringed at the self admission that Gaara and Naruto DID stuff together. He was the leader of a country that hers was on good terms and her actions were taken into account when she was visiting. And behind all of that, they were all friends. It was best to forget about this than anything else.

With her reaction, he breathed a sigh and finally stood up. He lost his balance a little but when Sakura's hand twitched up to offer some help, the sand that had softened their fall rushed up into a stand that Gaara grasped. She hid her gesture by continuing her hand up to brush back some hair from her face.

_He's the freakin' Kazekage, why would he need my help?,_ she thought to herself, her eyes averted again. When he grasped her arms, she started out of her thinking, realizing Gaara was standing right in front of her. His eyes captured her gaze to where she couldn't look away. He spoke again.

"We should look in on Naruto."

Again, she nodded only in agreement and they left the bathroom. Naruto was still passed out on the bed, sleeping fitfully. He'd tangled himself up in the red silk sheets again, his hair shining glossy black in the light. As Sakura began checking him out, Gaara threw himself into a chair by the bed and began to brood.

The fact that this had just happened only proved to himself that he was getting sloppy. His plan to turn Naruto against his friends by their trying to force themselves on him was working well on one front, but he had not expected this random turn of events. Naruto was not supposed to have gotten hurt. Sasuke was not supposed to attempt to go so far to drive him away that he would stir up Naruto's feelings. And kissing Sakura? Even he couldn't have seen THAT one coming.

What's even worse was that it had stirred some feelings in him. Besides Siann, he'd never been with a woman. He'd never bothered being romantic with anyone since her, but Naruto had awakened that sense of him again and now that he knew he could feel like that again, things were getting out of hand. He had to get control of this situation.

He looked so deep in thought that when Sakura was finished with Naruto's checkup, she didn't even bother trying to talk to him. As she left the room, she looked back. Gaara was unwittingly burning a hole in the wall with his gaze while he protectively sat next to a peacefully sleeping Naruto. He reached out, seemingly without thinking, and grasped Naruto's hand. She saw Naruto squeeze back and smile a little in his sleep.

She closed the door and leaned against it, brushing the her fingers across her lips, going over that image in her mind. Then something clicked.

She made a beeline for her room. With her recent experience with Gaara, suddenly Sasuke's behavior didn't seem so strange anymore.

I love love LOVE! reviews! They always put a big smile on my face and make me want to write more. Thank you all for your support and I hope you enjoyed this chapter! ^-^


End file.
